A Briton and a French teenager were rescued on Saturday, three days after going missing while diving off Malaysia, but the found man’s son remains missing, police said.
The group, accompanied by a Norwegian instructor, had dived at sea for about 40 minutes on Wednesday, near a group of islands in southern Malaysia. But when the divers surfaced, they failed to see their boat and drifted in the strong currents.
Briton Adrian Peter Chesters, 46, and Frenchwoman Alexandra Molina, 18, were spotted by fishermen and rescued by police, local police chief Cyril Eward Nuing said. “They survived and are in hospital in stable condition,” he told a news conference.
14-year-old still missing
They were found off the coast of the state of Johor (south), far from the place where they had initially started their dive, before being transported to hospital. The son of Mr. Chesters, Nathen, 14, of Dutch nationality, is however still missing and search operations continue to find him, according to the police, who have decided to concentrate their efforts further south, towards Singapore and neighboring Indonesia.
Their dive instructor, Kristine Grodem, 35, was rescued on Thursday after being detected at sea by a passing boat also a significant distance from the site where the group disappeared on Wednesday. She had been picked up by a helicopter mobilized for the search and taken to the nearby district of Mersing, before being hospitalized in stable condition.
The captain of the boat arrested
Helicopters, boats and several dozen divers are taking part in the search. Police also revealed that the captain of the boat that took them to the diving area was arrested after testing positive for drugs.
The instructor had taken the group near a collection of small islands, Pulau Tokong Sanggol, some 15 kilometers from the coast when the accident occurred. The area where they disappeared is popular with local and foreign tourists and dotted with hotels.
Diving accidents are rare in Malaysia, but in 2013 a British diver died after being injured by a boat engine while diving near islands in the South China Sea. Malaysia reopened its borders to international tourists last week after two years of closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.