DATELINE: 1st July 2002

LUCKY ESCAPE FOR DIVER LOST IN WRECK
A diver is recovering in hospital after becoming lost inside the wreck San Tiburcio, Moray Firth, and making an out-of-air ascent from 35m.
Aberdeen Coastguard scrambled the rescue helicopter from Lossiemouth after receiving a mayday call from the skipper of dive boat Woodpecker at 1pm on Saturday 29 June. The man had been recovered from the surface after becoming seperated from his dive buddy inside the wreck. It appears that he had been forced to partially de-kit to squeeze out of a hole in the wreck, and had exhausted his main cylinder and pony cylinder in the process. He dumped his weightbelt and made a buoyant ascent from 35m, swallowing a large quantity of water on the way up.
He was recovered and treated on the dive boat while waiting for the helicopter, and appears to have escaped without a bend.
"We would like to praise the professionalism of the skipper of the Woodpecker who throughout the incident kept a calm manner and reported the unfolding incident to the Coastguard Co-ordination Centre. Had it not been for the swift actions of the skipper, the result may have been much more serious." commented Ross Greenhill, Watch Officer at Aberdeen Coastguard.

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