PHUKET: A woman who drowned while scuba diving off the coast of the Australian city of Sydney has been identified as popular Phuket resident Marcia Fisk Ong.
The 62-year-old American was found unconscious when diving with three other people about 10am on October 7, according to a suburban Sydney newspaper report.
She was dragged to shore near the monument at Captain Cook's Landing Place, Kurnell.
A witness tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, according to the local 'St George and Sutherland Shire Leader'.
A detective said: ''There will be an examination of the diving equipment, particularly the air tank to see if there were any faults.''
On her Facebook page, the Phuket dive instructor said that she'd planned the trip to Sydney to ''look for the weedy sea dragon in the wild.''
She had strong links to Gekko Scuba Divers, based in Rawai.
Her death follows that of Phuket-based diving instructor Denis Lipatov, 39, a Russian, who failed to surface while spearfishing off Racha Noi on September 28.
Marcia Fisk Ong was a regular poster to the comments section of Phuketwan. One of her more recent messages read as follows:
I'm learning about corruption first hand in light of a recent car crash. While at a dead stop waiting to turn right across two lanes of traffic, an oncoming motorbike weaved back and forth across those two lanes and smashed head on at full speed into the front of my truck, right between the headlights. The police and the insurance adjuster and in fact even the family of the motorbike driver (a 16-year-old with no helmet and with a pocket full of playing cards indicating he'd been gambling, which is illegal) are in agreement that I was not at fault. And yet, I'm getting pressured from all sides to pay for the boy's medical care and for the repair to his bike as well as for the repairs to my own vehicle. I am resisting, and as a result, the police (Chalong) are not issuing a report with conclusions and my insurance cannot pay out. I've been told by my paralegal that the only way to get past this is to admit to guilt so that my insurance will pay compensation to the "victim" and pay for the repairs to his scooter. I've also been advised to give a tip to the investigating officer in order to get the ball rolling again. In my country this is called insurance fraud and bribery. Here it seems to be the status quo.
The 62-year-old American was found unconscious when diving with three other people about 10am on October 7, according to a suburban Sydney newspaper report.
She was dragged to shore near the monument at Captain Cook's Landing Place, Kurnell.
A witness tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, according to the local 'St George and Sutherland Shire Leader'.
A detective said: ''There will be an examination of the diving equipment, particularly the air tank to see if there were any faults.''
On her Facebook page, the Phuket dive instructor said that she'd planned the trip to Sydney to ''look for the weedy sea dragon in the wild.''
She had strong links to Gekko Scuba Divers, based in Rawai.
Her death follows that of Phuket-based diving instructor Denis Lipatov, 39, a Russian, who failed to surface while spearfishing off Racha Noi on September 28.
Marcia Fisk Ong was a regular poster to the comments section of Phuketwan. One of her more recent messages read as follows:
I'm learning about corruption first hand in light of a recent car crash. While at a dead stop waiting to turn right across two lanes of traffic, an oncoming motorbike weaved back and forth across those two lanes and smashed head on at full speed into the front of my truck, right between the headlights. The police and the insurance adjuster and in fact even the family of the motorbike driver (a 16-year-old with no helmet and with a pocket full of playing cards indicating he'd been gambling, which is illegal) are in agreement that I was not at fault. And yet, I'm getting pressured from all sides to pay for the boy's medical care and for the repair to his bike as well as for the repairs to my own vehicle. I am resisting, and as a result, the police (Chalong) are not issuing a report with conclusions and my insurance cannot pay out. I've been told by my paralegal that the only way to get past this is to admit to guilt so that my insurance will pay compensation to the "victim" and pay for the repairs to his scooter. I've also been advised to give a tip to the investigating officer in order to get the ball rolling again. In my country this is called insurance fraud and bribery. Here it seems to be the status quo.
Very sad to hear this news about a fellow marine life lover, indeed the Seadragon is unique to Australia and I have seen them myself in The Spit, Surfers Paradise, Queensland in shallow water about 2m.
Posted by Fiesty Farang on October 12, 2013 17:24