Diver panicked, Coroner finds

File photo / Hawke's Bay Today

A Dunedin diver who died during a crayfishing expedition had faulty equipment and poor technique, a coroner's court in Greymouth has been told.

Ralf Schumacher, 39, failed to surface while diving at Jackson Bay on October 23 last year. His body was found on the sea floor at a depth of 37m the following day.

He was still wearing a weight belt, was clutching the catch bag in one hand and his diving tank still contained lots of air. His face mask and mouthpiece were not in place.

Mr Schumacher was in a party of five that had been diving from two boats at the popular Hapuka Rock site at the entrance to the bay. He had been diving for 16 years but his friends gave him a rating of only three on a scale to 10 in terms of competency.

He was first into the water and two others left the boats about five minutes later. They both emerged with their catch bags full within 20 minutes, but Mr Schumacher had not surfaced, prompting one of his companions to comment, "Where's Ralf? Is he sightseeing down there?"

Aware that Mr Schumacher would only have about five minutes of air remaining in the tank, the others scanned the ocean to see if he had surfaced elsewhere. After another half hour had passed they called for help.

They did not bother to dive to look for him because they knew he could not be alive if he was under the water.

The next day another friend from the Dunedin Dive Club located his body.

Sergeant Nigel Bullock, of the police dive squad, conducted an investigation and found various faults with Mr Schumacher's ageing equipment, but especially with the buoyancy compensation device. That did not have an inflation hose connected to a gas cylinder, requiring the user to withdraw his mouthpiece and blow into it manually.

If the diver then forgot to purge the mouthpiece before again breathing through it he would inhale seawater.

Mr Bullock told the court he believed that had happened just five minutes into the dive. Mr Schumacher had taken water into his lungs, panicked and, as a dive computer attached to his equipment showed, had suddenly dropped to the sea floor.

Mr Bullock said Mr Schumacher had broken one of diving's golden rules by not having a 'buddy', who could have calmed him down and shared a regulator if need be.

Forensic pathologist Martin Sage simply found that the diver had "drowned during a scuba mishap". There were no drugs or alcohol in his system but his weight belt was too heavy for a person of his size.

Regional coroner Richard McElrea yesterday reserved his formal finding but recommended that the police dive squad report into the incident be distributed to all New Zealand diving clubs.

-NZPA