Indonesian rescuers yesterday resumed their search for seven Japanese scuba divers who vanished during a dive near Bali two days ago, a consular official said.
A search party was combing the seas for the five tourists and two instructors — all women — who went missing during their third dive near the islands of Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida southeast of Bali on Friday afternoon, Japanese Deputy Consul General in Bali Yasue Katsunobu said.
Their boat’s skipper called the police after the women did not resurface, Katsunobu said, adding the boat was hired from Yellow Scuba on the beachside strip of Sanur.
“We are still searching for the seven missing divers. So far there’s no indication of where they are,” Katsunobu said yesterday.
Amtarama, a staff member of Bali’s search and rescue agency, said about 100 people had joined the operation from his agency, the maritime police, the navy, as well as fishermen, and Japanese and Indonesian diving instructors.
“After having no luck on Saturday, we have expanded the search area,” Amtarama said. “We have seven official boats, not including the fishermen’s, and a helicopter has been scanning the waters since the early morning.”
The team will continue until dark, he said.
Rescuers searched until 3pm on Saturday when bad weather, including heavy rain, forced them to halt the mission, officials said.
Police said earlier that the women had left from Crystal Bay on the larger island Nusa Penida when they went missing.
Crystal Bay is a popular site for seeing Nusa Penida’s famous mola-mola, or ocean sunfish, and is recommended for experienced divers because of its strong downward current.
The skipper said that he was following the divers for about 20 minutes before a sudden downpour of rain made the water cloudy, according to a report in Japan’s Asahi Shimbun.
He moved his 10m-long boat to a point hundreds of meters away where the divers were expected to resurface at an agreed time, the report said.
The skipper said he searched for them for an hour before reporting the incident, the newspaper said.
“I’ve been guiding since 2009, and I’ve been to the area [of the accident] many times. Why did this happen?” he said in the report.
Katsunobu said that the seven women were very experienced scuba divers with at least 50 dives each under their belts.
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