Five of seven missing divers rescued,one body found.

Posted by Administrator on 19th February, 2014

One of the Japanese divers who went missing during a dive in Blue Corner (also known as Blue Point) off Nusa Lembongan was found dead Tuesday evening.

She was found floating in Serangan waters near a watersport area at 6:10 p.m. by a local.

However, the victim has yet to be identified as she suffered injuries to her face and is hard to recognize. It is suspected that the victim is Miyata Ritsuko, 59.

The body was transported from the waters at 6:35 p.m. by boat and immediately taken to Sanglah Hospital.

The national search and rescue agency (Basarnas) Denpasar spokesman, Didi Hamzar, said that the victim was found wearing a wetsuit and a buoyancy control device (BCD) used for diving.

The last remaining diver still missing is Takashi Shoko, 35.

“Tomorrow morning, we will continue the search for the one other diver,” Didi said.

On Monday, five of the seven Japanese divers lost at sea were found alive. The five are Furukawa Saori, 37, Yamamoto Emi, 33, Tomita Namomi, 28, Morizono Aya, 27, and Yoshidome Atsumi, 29.

The survivors were first found by a local at 3:52 p.m. around 300 meters from Manta Point, a Nusa Penida dive spot located between 14 to 16 nautical miles from Blue Corner, where the women had vanished Friday.

As of Tuesday, four survivors were still being treated at Sanglah Hospital, while one other was being cared for at Kasih Ibu Hospital.

The seven Japanese divers vanished Friday while diving off Nusa Lembongan, one of three small islets off Bali’s southeast coast known collectively as Nusa Penida.

The search and rescue team involved members of Basarnas, local police and military personnel, fishermen, as well as a helicopter and a search boat from the Basarnas local office on neighboring Lombok Island.

Previously, Basarnas had stated it would stop the search and rescue operation on Tuesday, in line with standard operating procedures, however the situation has now changed.

“Because we have found five victims alive and another one dead, we will continue to search, deploying all personnel and equipment on Wednesday. If we don’t find the victim, we will start only monitoring on Thursday,” Didi said.

Meanwhile, Basarnas also denied that the two missing divers had already been found alive on Monday. “The two people reported by a local as the victims were actually rescuers from Basarnas who could not be evacuated after they had helped the evacuation process of the five living divers,” Didi said.

On Monday evening, Nusa Penida Police chief Comr. Nyoman Suarsika revealed that local fishermen had reported spotting the two missing divers near Batu Bolong off Nusa Penida, but had not been able to evacuate them.

Last changed: 19th February, 2014 at 8:37 PM