American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan have been left behind by their dive boat in waters teeming with sharks.
Tom and Eileen Lonergan have been left behind after an incorrect headcount (Picture: Queensland Police )
In a nightmare second a eager scuba-diving couple have been left alone in shark-infested waters and the boat skipper who left them behind would solely realise they have been lacking two days later. Skilled divers Tom and Eileen Lonergan have been on a visit of a lifetime to the Nice Barrier Reef in Australia.
On January 25, 1998, the couple determined to take a scuba diving constitution boat so they may witness the pure surprise teeming with different 1,500 species of marine life, together with reef and tiger sharks. The excited pair travelled from Cairns, in Queensland, for round an hour to Port Douglas to catch their boat, the MV Outer Edge, skippered by Geoffrey “Jack” Nairn.
Tom and Eileen Lonergan have been visiting Australia from Louisiana in america (Picture: Queenland Police )
The couple loved a surprising day of diving by all accounts, taking within the wonderful underwater canyons on the reef web site which might have been filled with fish and different marine life. Tom and Eileen had been married for 10 years, having first met at Louisiana College.
The pair cherished outside adventures and each served with the US Peace Corps volunteer organisation within the Pacific islands of Tuvalu and Fiji for 2 years previous to their journey to Australia. The Mail On-line stories, Tom instructed the MV Outer Edge’s diving teacher, Katherine Traverso, that he and Eileen would discover on their very own as they have been each skilled divers.
The paper reported the American couple’s solo adventures have been by no means recorded within the dive logs on the boat. The logs are important for recording how lengthy divers have been within the water and who has dived the place, in addition they assist preserve a observe of who’s on the boat.
Simply previous 3pm the order was given to do a head depend of these on board the MV Outer Edge in readiness to begin the engines and head again to Port Douglas. British diver Bryan Brogdan had seen the Lonergans watching an enormous clam earlier than he returned to the vessel.
As soon as a head depend was accomplished, the ship started to move again to port, however crucially the top depend had missed the Lonergans, with the couple nonetheless within the water.
As soon as again at port the alarm was not raised till 6pm on January 27, by which period the couple had been within the shark-infested waters for greater than 48 hours.
Regardless of an enormous air and sea search being carried out over three days, Tom and Eileen have been by no means discovered.
The MV boat skipper Geoffrey “Jack” Nairn was cleared of any wrongdoing at a subsequent trial for manslaughter. An inquest into the couple’s disappearance pointed to the excessive prevalence of sharks within the space they disappeared.
In a haunting discover in June 1998, a diving slate, utilized by scuba divers to put in writing messages underwater, was discovered on a seaside. It learn: “To anybody who may also help us: We have now been deserted on Agincourt Reef by MV Outer Edge 25 Jan, 98, 03pm. Please assist us come to rescue us earlier than we die. Assist!!!”
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A diving tank and vests marked with Tom and Eileen’s names have been additionally discovered on a seaside close to Cooktown, round 200-miles away from Port Douglas. Tears have been discovered within the diving fits.
The disappearance of the couple led to an enormous overhaul of dive security guidelines in Australia. Their story can also be stated to be the partial inspiration for the 2003 horror movie Open Water, which portrays an American couple left stranded in shark-infested waters.
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