Incident in Indonesia

Victims :

- Havis: Indonesian instructor with over 15 years of diving experience in the Gili

- Julie: French Advanced and Level 2 diver with nearly 100 dives

Dive site: Halik - North of Gili Trawangan Island - Lombok - Indonesia

Incident: the two divers get caught in a very powerful and unusual bottom current and after a quick decision of the monitor to resurface (11 minutes of immersion) it is already too late and the two divers start a long drift which will bring them to Bali (about 80km as the crow flies).

Sequence of events:

Havis and Julie left for a dive on the Halik site. The immersion was done at 11:11 am for a return scheduled at 45:XNUMX am max noon.

The team on the boat waited until the divers returned to the surface until 12:15 (15 minutes after their supposed maximum return) before launching search procedures.

The Scuba Froggy boat supported by the Buddha dive boat went in search of missing divers towards the open sea, the direction in which the currents were pushing.

At 12:30 pm after no sign of life from the divers the alert is transmitted to all the boats on site (6 on this day), the majority of the diving clubs present on the three Gili islands as well as a search and rescue service. A total of 6 boats from different diving clubs (Blue Marlin, Dream Divers, 3W dive, Lombok Dive, Dolphin Dive, Buddha Dive) as well as two stars start a coordinated research on a larger scale. Other structures not being mentioned, they are certainly involved in this research without making themselves known and we thank them.

At 14 p.m. and after still having found nothing, Scuba Froggy orders a helicopter to come and sweep the area. The Bali helicopter arrives on Gili Trawangan at 15 p.m. From 15 p.m. to 17 p.m. the helicopter of a private company surveys the sky in a southwest direction up to 30 km offshore then changes course for the northeast more than 40 km from the coast in vain (south west and north east being the major currents off the Gili Islands).

18pm nightfall and end of aerial research supported by the boats of other diving companies as well as private ones.

20 p.m. launch of a night search boat of the SAR Lombok team (Search And Rescue Lombok) which will patrol the entire southern area of ​​Lombok throughout the night.

In the interval 12:30 p.m. - 20 p.m. all the fishermen of Bali and Lombok are warned of the disappearance of two divers, all the Fast Boat companies making the connection between Bali and Lombok are warned to advance only halfway -speed and search for these divers at this time all the South, South West, North West and North zones are covered the East zone of Bali as well as all three Gili Islands (Trawangan, Meno and Air) by an armada of boat fishing, fast boat, private and commercial structures.

At nightfall Scuba Froggy in coordination with the SAR team, the general of the air force and the general of the navy of Lombok, the managers of certain diving structures of Lombok as well as members of the family of the instructor the searches for the next day are organized with a helicopter flying over the northern zone, an air force microlight flying over the southern zone with two pilots who can fly all day, the same armada of boat as the day before, a speedboat off Gili Trawangan heading north, a diving boat heading north at the coast, a speed boat and a diving boat heading south the first distant from the coast and the second near the coasts and finally three boats from three different dive centers on Bali on the south-eastern part of the island.

8 am a call is received informing that the divers disappeared the day before were found by a Balinese fisherman and that they are safe and sound, tired but in good moral and physical health.

Their repatriation to Lombok was done by speed boat at 14 p.m. and was cheered by a crowd of rescuers and family members.

In total, their drift lasted more than 20 hours and a team of more than a hundred people was mobilized to find them.

Our greatest satisfaction is to note that after all the efforts deployed and means implemented in a rapid and coordinated manner we have allowed these two people to find their families.

There is nothing wrong with the instructor who made the right decisions at the right time on a site he knew perfectly.

No harm is to be reproached to the crew of the boat not suspecting anything of this very strong bottom current on a well known and regularly diving site.

We would like to thank Scuba Froggy on behalf of all those who mobilized and responded to this rescue (Blue Marlin, Dream Divers, Dolphin Dive School, Buddha Dive, Lombok Dive, 3W Dive, SAR team, Lombok air and naval generals, Air Bali, all fishermen present, fast boat companies linking Bali and Lombok, the private ones such as Kus, Erwin, Onk, and many others as the list is long) and who made it possible, with their material and moral support, to find and save the lives of these two divers.

Thank you also to the entire Scuba Froggy team for their unwavering involvement.