UPDATING All Day, Every Day
FAMILY members will arrive in Thailand on Saturday to assist in the search efforts, according to cbs3springfield.com.
Original Report
PHUKET: Witnesses interviewed by Phuket police last night over the disappearance of American diver Joshua Devine agreed he was ''very drunk'' before he vanished from a dive boat, the investigating officer said today.
Lieutenant Thanapob Rattanaburi grilled Britons Daniel Burn, John Pashley, Andrew Patrick Mead, a Thai dive instructor and a crewman, who arrived back on Phuket last night. Mrs Tadsana Devine was also questioned again.
Widespread news coverage in the US also appears to have triggered belated interest among authorities on the Thai holiday island.
The Governor of Phuket accompanied the wife of the 36-year-old diver in a helicopter flight today on a search over the sea where he went missing early on Saturday.
Governor Nisit Jansomwong was also photographed on the deck of a Marine Police vessel with Phuket Marine Office 5 chief Phuripat Theerakulpisut and Mrs Devine.
''The witnesses all said that Mr Devine was very drunk before he disappeared,'' Lieutenant Thanapob told Phuketwan today.
Other passengers noticed Mr Devine missing from the Chontara I, about 17 miles off the coast of Phuket's Bang Tao beach, about 4am on Saturday.
According to the witnesses from the dive boat, the vessel then backtracked along its course for 10 miles, lit up and using beams to look for the man overboard.
Having failed to spot Mr Devine, the vessel then motored in a circle around the 10-mile radius to broaden the search area.
''Having found nothing, the Chontara I renewed its voyage to the Similan islands, a popular dive spot, about 7am,'' Lieutenant Thanapob said he was told.
A Marine Police vessel arrived in the search area about 10am.
Marine Police, with Kusoldharm Foundation search and rescue workers in a dinghy, continued looking for Mr Devine until nightfall then picked up Mrs Devine from the dive boat anchored in the Similans, arriving back on Phuket about 9pm.
On the following day, Sunday, a Royal Thai Navy helicopter briefly joined the search.
The Marine Police vessel continued to look for Mr Devine until 5pm.
On Monday, the Marine Police vessel ventured out between 10am and late afternoon, pushed back to harbor by a storm.
On Tuesday, the search was limited to 10am-2pm.
Tourist Police, national park rangers, village volunteer organisations and fishing networks along the coast have all been alerted to look for the missing diver.
Questions are likely to be asked in the wake of Mr Devine's disappearance about mixing alcohol and diving and about search and rescue resources in the Phuket region.
The holiday island is the richest province outside of Bangkok yet is poorly equipped to deal with emergencies on beaches and at sea.
The disappearance of Joshua Devine came days after a ferry travelling between the province of Krabi and Phuket caught fire and sank, with the death of 12-year-old Israeli Shani Maril and a frantic plunge into the sea by 117 survivors.
The cause of the burning and sinking has yet to be established. Representatives from the 12 or more nationalities on board the vessel are asking whether the ferry's crew was trained to fight fires and whether there were sufficient working fire extinguishers on board.
While tourism brings huge sums of money to Phuket and Thailand's Andaman coast, expat observers reckon most of it circulates in corrupt payments which go untaxed.
Enforcement is lax. As a result, said one veteran of two decades in Patong, ''tourists endure five-star prices, three-star service and two-star safety.''
Mr Devine, who lived and worked in Kuwait as an IT contractor to the US military, left Phuket with his wife and 24 other passengers and crew of seven on the liveaboard at midnight on Friday.
There is to much focus on the mood/condition of the missing diver, mr J.Devine. But all talks, no prove, no facts.
Fact is, according PW report here, that the dive boat left the search scene at 7:00 AM, just after sunrise ( good time for search).The Marine police vessel arrived at the scene at 10:00 AM. acoording international ( Sar) regulations, the dive boat was obliged to continue search until it was dismissed by the Marine police boat.
Posted by Kurt on April 15, 2015 11:35
Editor Comment:
PW hopes the key issues relating to both the slow and ineffective SAR for Mr Devine and the questions about the skills, training and fire-fighting ability of the ferry crew are raised when Phuket's honorary consuls meet the Governor on Tuesday - for the first time since September.