PHUKET: The captain of a liveaboard dive boat, suspended for one month after the disappearance of American Joshua Devine, has told for the first time of what happened on the boat that day.
Sommai Sukwattana, 47, spoke to Phuketwan at a meeting of about 160 dive captains and business owners at a Phuket City hotel yesterday.
A discussion about alcohol on vessels was expected to take place following a suggestion from Phuket Governor Nisit Jansomwong that alcohol should be banned. However, the matter was not raised and talk was mostly about the use of GPS on boats, which is now being introduced as an improvement on some aspects of radar.
After the meeting, Khun Sommai said that he had left Phuket about 11pm on April 10, bound for the Similans with diving expected to begin at 8.30am the following day.
On board were one group of 15 foreigners, seven Thai divers and three couples from Pattaya, including Mr Devine.
''The Pattaya group brought on board seven boxes of beer and at least 10 bottles of wine,'' Khun Sommai said. ''They started drinking at 8.30pm before the boat departed and were still going at 3am.''
Mr Devine's wife Goi turned in then, Khun Sommai said. At 5.05am, one of the group alerted him to Mr Devine's disappearance.
He said that at about 4.30am, Mr Devine had urinated in a passageway, then moved onto the bridge where he playfully slapped crew, then fell down on the floor. Mr Devine got up and staggered off, Khun Sommai said.
Within 35 minutes, he had vanished from the boat and Khun Sommai noted the position as 17 miles off Phuket International Airport. There was no mobile telephone network so Khun Sommai alerted the Similan National Park rangers by walkie-talkie and asked the to notify Marine Police and the Royal Thai Navy.
He said he immediately turned back and retraced the course the vessel had taken, circling and performing figure eights at least six times until the Marine Police reached the spot about 1.30pm.
''We stayed in the area, continuing to search, until 4pm,'' Khun Sommai said. That day's diving had to be cancelled.
The captain's one-month suspension was imposed by Phuket Marine Office 5 chief Phuripat Theerakulpisut because ''something had to be done,'' Khun Sommai said he was told.
Ferries operating from Phuket usually have bars serving alcohol in small quantities but standard procedure on liveaboards is for customers to bring their own if they wish, Khun Sommai said.
There has been no sign so far of the missing 36-year-old American, who worked as an IT consultant to the US military in Kuwait and visited Thailand occasionally to dive. His wife - they had been married for five years - came from Pattaya.
Sommai Sukwattana, 47, spoke to Phuketwan at a meeting of about 160 dive captains and business owners at a Phuket City hotel yesterday.
A discussion about alcohol on vessels was expected to take place following a suggestion from Phuket Governor Nisit Jansomwong that alcohol should be banned. However, the matter was not raised and talk was mostly about the use of GPS on boats, which is now being introduced as an improvement on some aspects of radar.
After the meeting, Khun Sommai said that he had left Phuket about 11pm on April 10, bound for the Similans with diving expected to begin at 8.30am the following day.
On board were one group of 15 foreigners, seven Thai divers and three couples from Pattaya, including Mr Devine.
''The Pattaya group brought on board seven boxes of beer and at least 10 bottles of wine,'' Khun Sommai said. ''They started drinking at 8.30pm before the boat departed and were still going at 3am.''
Mr Devine's wife Goi turned in then, Khun Sommai said. At 5.05am, one of the group alerted him to Mr Devine's disappearance.
He said that at about 4.30am, Mr Devine had urinated in a passageway, then moved onto the bridge where he playfully slapped crew, then fell down on the floor. Mr Devine got up and staggered off, Khun Sommai said.
Within 35 minutes, he had vanished from the boat and Khun Sommai noted the position as 17 miles off Phuket International Airport. There was no mobile telephone network so Khun Sommai alerted the Similan National Park rangers by walkie-talkie and asked the to notify Marine Police and the Royal Thai Navy.
He said he immediately turned back and retraced the course the vessel had taken, circling and performing figure eights at least six times until the Marine Police reached the spot about 1.30pm.
''We stayed in the area, continuing to search, until 4pm,'' Khun Sommai said. That day's diving had to be cancelled.
The captain's one-month suspension was imposed by Phuket Marine Office 5 chief Phuripat Theerakulpisut because ''something had to be done,'' Khun Sommai said he was told.
Ferries operating from Phuket usually have bars serving alcohol in small quantities but standard procedure on liveaboards is for customers to bring their own if they wish, Khun Sommai said.
There has been no sign so far of the missing 36-year-old American, who worked as an IT consultant to the US military in Kuwait and visited Thailand occasionally to dive. His wife - they had been married for five years - came from Pattaya.
"standard procedure on liveaboards is for customers to bring their own if they wish"
No, not correct, standard is that beers and light alcoholic drinks like wine are for sale by the boat operator.
Did the captain explain why they decided to head for Similans that afternoon in stead of continuing the search for Joshua?
Posted by stevenl on April 24, 2015 10:03