News
Indonesian skipper jailed for Japanese diver deaths
A court in Indonesia sentenced a boat skipper to three years’ imprisonment on Tuesday over an ill-fated diving trip which killed two of the seven Japanese women taking part.
Agustinus Brata Kusuma lost track of the divers near the resort island of Bali in February when a storm hit suddenly.
Kusuma broke down in tears as the judge read the verdict, convicting him of negligence causing death and injury.
“I apologise to the families of the victims. It was not intentional,” he told reporters outside the Denpasar district court in Bali after the ruling.
Five of the divers were spotted approximately 20 kilometres from their take-off point three days after they went missing. They had managed to clamber onto rocks and coral reefs before they were rescued.
Presiding judge Nursyam said the court had found that Kusuma had taken “too long to ask for help and report the incident”.
He left the location to buy fuel after losing sight of the divers, returning two hours later, Nursyam said.
“When the Japanese divers came to the surface, the boat wasn’t there,” he said.
“The seven divers were smashed around by the storm and were separated.”
The judge said the defendant’s actions had tarnished the reputation of Bali as a tourism destination.
Kusuma worked for the Bali-based dive company Yellow Scuba, which organised the women’s trip to the neighbouring islands of Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan.
A Japanese Yellow Scuba instructor, Saori Furukawa, was among the women saved. Shoko Takahashi, who ran Yellow Scuba with her husband, was one of the two found dead.
Furukawa told the court earlier how she fired a flare gun to try to get the skipper’s attention to no avail.
She told reporters after the incident that the weather suddenly turned bad and the sea spun “like a washing machine”, describing being swept apart from the others by a strong current.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
Over the next 12 months, specialist scuba holiday company Dive Worldwide will be supporting Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation with donations collected from client bookings to any one of its stunning dive destinations around the world. The independently-owned operator expects to raise £3000 for the UK charity.
Manager at Dive Worldwide, Phil North, said: “We’re especially excited to work with Bite-Back and support its intelligent, creative and results-driven campaigns to end the UK trade in shark products and prompt a change in attitudes to the ocean’s most maligned inhabitant.”
Bite-Back is running campaigns to hold the media to account on the way it reports shark news along with a brand new nationwide education programme. Last year the charity was credited for spearheading a UK ban on the import and export of shark fins.
Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “We’re enormously grateful to Dive Worldwide for choosing to support Bite-Back. The company’s commitment to conservation helps set it apart from other tour operators and we’re certain its clients admire and respect that policy. For us, the affiliation is huge and helps us look to the future with confidence we can deliver against key conservation programmes.”
To launch the fundraising initiative, Phil North presented Graham Buckingham with a cheque for £1,000.
Visit Dive Worldwide to discover its diverse range of international scuba adventures and visit Bite-Back to learn more about the charity’s campaigns.
MORE INFORMATION
Call Graham Buckingham on 07810 454 266 or email graham@bite-back.com
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