SENSACIONES
5th April 2009, 19:56
It had been a glorious day. The diving around the Similan islands in Thailand had been superb and the weather perfect.
Mark Sampson, 53, an IT security expert from Balwyn, had been enjoying the sunshine aboard the MV Dive Asia 1 on the last day of a five-night diving expedition.
By the end of the night, seven of his fellow passengers were dead, drowned after their boat went down in a savage storm within sight of the holiday town of Patong last Sunday.
"I must have gone to bed about 10.50pm," Mr Sampson said. "Suddenly, the boat listed 20 or 30 degrees and I waited for it to right itself. It didn't. It went over further, too far. I knew I had to get out.
"My cabin was on the lowest of three decks, about sea level. I had to climb a spiral staircase to get out. But the wall was now the floor. To get onto the staircase, I had to hoist myself up to shoulder height.
"Someone behind me helped to shove me up. They were anxious to get out, too. From the dive deck, we managed to jump into the sea."
Within two minutes, the boat had capsized, keel up.
"Then, about two minutes later, it sank," he said.
For the next 13 hours, Mr Sampson bobbed in a life raft as continuous bolts of lightning lit up the pitch-black water, his shaved head, peeling and red, a visible sign of his ordeal.
Two life rafts had been deployed and the survivors climbed into them, one by one. Eventually, there were 19 people in the rafts.
A German diving instructor, Christian Diermaier, saw a couple of life rings lit up in the dark some distance away, jumped back into the water and returned with four more people.
They were the last. As the storm eased and the people in the two rafts could hear each other, they called out each other's names and did the sums.
Twenty-three people on board the rafts. Seven missing.
The storm hit so suddenly and with such intensity there was not even time for the captain to make a mayday call. But the life rafts were in a popular waterway, within sight of Phuket. Rescue could be expected any minute, the survivors thought.
A sailing ship was spotted, a flare was fired. No response. "The people on the yacht were probably asleep," Mr Sampson said. Daylight came. Still nothing.
Back on Phuket, the alert was raised about 8am when Dive Asia staff went to Chalong pier to pick up the holiday divers, who are usually left to sleep in their cabins after the boat docks around 2am.
It was not until about noon that the crew on a small fishing boat responded to the flash of a special mirror that Sampson used to attract their attention.
It was part of the emergency equipment on the life rafts.
But the circular rafts, tethered together, continued to bob in the heat because there was no room on the fishing boat.
At 2pm, a marine police boat reached the survivors and by 4.30pm they were on dry land having their cuts, bruises and sunburn treated.
Apart from questions about the time it took for a rescue to be undertaken, officials are now looking at how a boat that was launched in October could sink so quickly in a storm.
It is thought the MV Dive Asia was toppled by a gale blowing in one direction and strong waves pounding the base in the other direction.
Mark Sampson, 53, an IT security expert from Balwyn, had been enjoying the sunshine aboard the MV Dive Asia 1 on the last day of a five-night diving expedition.
By the end of the night, seven of his fellow passengers were dead, drowned after their boat went down in a savage storm within sight of the holiday town of Patong last Sunday.
"I must have gone to bed about 10.50pm," Mr Sampson said. "Suddenly, the boat listed 20 or 30 degrees and I waited for it to right itself. It didn't. It went over further, too far. I knew I had to get out.
"My cabin was on the lowest of three decks, about sea level. I had to climb a spiral staircase to get out. But the wall was now the floor. To get onto the staircase, I had to hoist myself up to shoulder height.
"Someone behind me helped to shove me up. They were anxious to get out, too. From the dive deck, we managed to jump into the sea."
Within two minutes, the boat had capsized, keel up.
"Then, about two minutes later, it sank," he said.
For the next 13 hours, Mr Sampson bobbed in a life raft as continuous bolts of lightning lit up the pitch-black water, his shaved head, peeling and red, a visible sign of his ordeal.
Two life rafts had been deployed and the survivors climbed into them, one by one. Eventually, there were 19 people in the rafts.
A German diving instructor, Christian Diermaier, saw a couple of life rings lit up in the dark some distance away, jumped back into the water and returned with four more people.
They were the last. As the storm eased and the people in the two rafts could hear each other, they called out each other's names and did the sums.
Twenty-three people on board the rafts. Seven missing.
The storm hit so suddenly and with such intensity there was not even time for the captain to make a mayday call. But the life rafts were in a popular waterway, within sight of Phuket. Rescue could be expected any minute, the survivors thought.
A sailing ship was spotted, a flare was fired. No response. "The people on the yacht were probably asleep," Mr Sampson said. Daylight came. Still nothing.
Back on Phuket, the alert was raised about 8am when Dive Asia staff went to Chalong pier to pick up the holiday divers, who are usually left to sleep in their cabins after the boat docks around 2am.
It was not until about noon that the crew on a small fishing boat responded to the flash of a special mirror that Sampson used to attract their attention.
It was part of the emergency equipment on the life rafts.
But the circular rafts, tethered together, continued to bob in the heat because there was no room on the fishing boat.
At 2pm, a marine police boat reached the survivors and by 4.30pm they were on dry land having their cuts, bruises and sunburn treated.
Apart from questions about the time it took for a rescue to be undertaken, officials are now looking at how a boat that was launched in October could sink so quickly in a storm.
It is thought the MV Dive Asia was toppled by a gale blowing in one direction and strong waves pounding the base in the other direction.