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Police to retrace last moments of fatal scuba dive

Victim's husband wants to know why instructors didn't prevent accident

Hong Kong's diving community told of their shock over the scuba-diving death of Chan Young Wai-man as police yesterday attempted to retrace her last moments during an underwater expedition off Sai Kung.

Diving experts and police investigators believe the 33-year-old mother of one may have swallowed a large quantity of water and panicked.

But her husband, Chan Hing-Yeung, 40, has demanded to know how she was exposed to a dangerous situation while diving with qualified instructors.

A coroner's inquiry is expected into Sunday's incident - the third such tragedy in the waters off Sai Kung over the past 10 years. Police are analysing Chan's air tank, regulator, mouthpiece and dive computer - which would have recorded a profile of the depth and duration of her dive - to help build a clearer picture of the incident.

Chan, who had an open-water licence and had been diving for about a year, was on an outing with about 20 friends.

They were diving in waters about 100 metres from the eastern dam of the High Island reservoir when the accident occurred around noon.

After diving to a maximum depth of about 8 metres, it is understood she lost sight of her diving buddy and her underwater instructor. Visibility was about 4 metres. She lost a fin and dived to retrieve the equipment.

The instructor returned to the surface, and after waiting several minutes raised the alarm when Chan did not surface.

She was found floating unconscious in about 6 metres of water. White foam was seen coming from her mouth as she was dragged aboard the dive boat.

Sai Kung Police Divisional Commander Mark Johnson said the results of an autopsy were not expected for several weeks.

'There was a small amount of air left in the tank, and when diving at such relatively shallow depth there is no concern of decompression sickness or the bends,' Mr Johnson said.

Mr Chan, an accountant with the Treasury Department, said his wife died because 'somebody did not pay attention'.

'She thought scuba-diving would help her release stress ... but now she has lost her life because of it,' he said earlier.

Hong Kong Underwater Association chairman Simon Yu Kwok-kuen, who is also a dive instructor, said the entire diving community was in shock and expressed deep remorse for the family of the victim.

Mr Yu said he was conducting his own separate inquiries to determine what, if any, action needed to be taken against the dive instructors who were accompanying the victim.

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