NELSON - The Nelson scuba diving centre involved in last week's triple fatality at French Pass plans to resume courses next week, including the one in which the three victims were taking part.
Nelson Dive Centre director Eric Walker said two of the three surviving students had told him they wanted to continue with the course, which had about nine weeks to go.
It was still not known when they would be cleared to dive again by doctors, he said.
Occupational Safety and Health (Osh), which is investigating the accident together with police, said it did not intend to stop the courses resuming.
Six students were taking part in advanced drift-dive training at the pass last Friday when they were sucked about 90m down a hole.
Narelle Te Purei, aged 33, and Ricky MacDonald, 40, died. David Welsh, 21, is still missing, presumed dead.
The other three students and the instructor have been treated for decompression sickness at Christchurch Hospital.
Mr Walker said the dive centre would resume the advanced course next week.
The students wanted to carry on and Osh had not directed that any of the centre's operations be stopped, he said.
Osh Nelson-Marlborough manager Brian Stratford confirmed yesterday that the service was not considering curtailing the centre's operations.
He said the investigation into the accident was not expected to be completed for about a month, but Osh would work with the centre to ensure that courses were run safely in the meantime.
Osh was "obviously concerned" about the site of last week's training session. "It may be that we need to discuss this issue with other dive centres, to see what training locations are being used," he said.
The accident happened on the northeastern side of the pass, which is renowned for its strong currents and whirlpools.
Mr Walker said the dive centre would rule that particular site off limits for drift-dive training sessions, but would probably still allow instructors to use other sites in the French Pass area.
The survivors of the accident would have to complete another drift dive.
Four of the six students involved in the accident were new to diving when they started the fulltime course five weeks ago.
By last week they had completed their basic and advanced openwater diving certificates and were working towards their dive master's' certificate, which involved specialist training, Mr Walker said.
The survivors have declined to talk to the media.
Detective Sergeant Wayne McCoy, of Nelson, said police would interview the survivors again next week.
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