Diver's death ruled accidental

The wife of former National Party cabinet minister Aussie Malcolm died as a result of an accident while diving near the Poor Knights, the Whangarei coroner has found.

Peter Mahood made the finding after an inquest into the death of Astrid Margaret Malcolm, aged 58, who drowned while diving near the Northern Arch on March 26.

Mrs Malcolm was a former Auckland City councillor.

She was with a dive party on the charter boat El Tigre when she got into trouble 20m underwater about 11 am.

The court was told Mrs Malcolm's diving "buddy" saw her mouthpiece fall from her mouth at least twice.

The buddy took Mrs Malcolm to the surface, where medical professionals on a nearby boat administered CPR for almost an hour.

Unfortunately it proved fruitless.

Mrs Malcolm was a relatively inexperienced diver on her ninth dive.

She had held a diving certificate for about a month.

Checks on her diving equipment found nothing that would have contributed to the accident.

An autopsy found that Mrs Malcolm drowned as a result of inhaling water.

- NZPA