Teenager dies in RAK diving accident
A 15-year-old died during a diving trip off the UAE coast when the pipe from his oxygen tank wrapped around his neck and choked him.
Ibrahim Ahmed Al Zaabi and his father, who are Emirati, were diving off Jazeera Al Hamra in Ras Al Khaimah when the tragedy occurred.
Sami Al Zaabi, Ibrahim’s uncle, said it was a family day out and there were six other relatives on the boat.
-
Family boat trip ends in tragedy after father finds 15-year-old son floating unconscious
“It was a private trip for the family to go diving. Ibrahim was a good diver and knew how to swim,” he said, adding the family cannot understand how the accident happened.
“It is devastating for the family. He was a kind boy and good to everyone. We will miss him.”
A senior RAK police officer said Ibrahim’s father had lost track of his son while they were diving.
Shortly afterwards, the father found the boy unconscious and motionless under the water with the pipe wrapped tightly around his neck.
The police officer said: “The boy suffocated under the water as he could not free himself because his neck was accidentally caught by the oxygen pipe.”
When Ibrahim was pulled out of the water he was unconscious and was rushed to hospital, but died before he reached there.
Course director at Al Boom Diving in Dubai, Mohammed Helmi, said it was uncommon for a pipe to get wrapped around a diver’s neck.
“This is the first time I have heard that a diver’s neck was caught by the air pipe,” he said, adding it was more common for a diver to suffocate if his air suddenly ran out underwater.
Helmi said the diver’s chances of surviving when he runs out of air or oxygen while in the water may depend or how deep he has reached and if he is with other divers or notices that he is in trouble.
This has been the second case involving a teenager dying in the waters off RAK in less than a week. On Monday, a 14-year-old PalestÂinian boy drowned while he was swimming in a prohibited area in the Creek of Al Rams area, 15km north of RAK City.
ismail@7days.ae
Comments
by searcaigh
Sunday, July 01 2012, 2:08PM
“Interesting that the boy's father did not adhere to the buddy system, and how long was the regulator hose that it managed to wrap around the boy's neck, something not right about this!
Additionally oxygen is not used for diving (or perhaps it was used in case which would explain why he died), compressed air is the general gas used for rec diving. Was this kid trained at all? Running out of air should never happen if monitoring the SPG regularly, and you don't suffocate, you drown! All trained divers are taught CESA to ascend from depths of up to 10M .... or at least they were when I did my dive training many years ago.”