Dinghy driver horrified, widow tells inquest
The wife of an avid diver who died while diving off Sai Kung last year told a coroner's court yesterday she had heard the driver of a high-powered dinghy shout he had hit something in the water just as her husband was due to resurface.
Bjorn Lohse, 51, the owner of Le Jardin bar in Central and part-time lawyer, died on May 9 last year while diving to recover an outboard engine in Sheung Sze Wan.
His wife, Barbara Lohse, was on the couple's boat, Solitaire, while he dived. She said she had seen the Zapcat, a dinghy with a powerful outboard engine driven by an acquaintance, Mark Simpson, travelling several times in a wide oblong circuit around the pleasure craft, passing every three to five minutes at a distance of about 10 to 15 metres.
She said her husband, who had almost 25 years' diving experience, usually resurfaced every 15 minutes to reassure her he was all right.
After he had been in the water about 15 minutes, Mrs Lohse said she'd heard a thud and seen Mr Simpson's dinghy stopped near her husband's floating diving mark.
She said she heard him say: 'Oh God, oh God, I've hit something.'
'He looked totally horrified and upset. He put his hand on his heart in absolute disbelief,' Mrs Lohse said.
When she asked him if he had only hit the diving mark, he had replied he had hit 'something', she said.
In a statement read out in court, Mrs Lohse said she had been alarmed when marine police, who arrived about an hour later, spent 20 minutes getting details such as her nationality and ID card information, as well as her husband's country of origin, hair colour and age, and did not enter the water or bring divers.
She said: 'I shouted at the marine police 'Look for him. Look for him. He's running out of air'.'
Moments later, James Morison, a friend from Sheung Sze Wan who had come to help in the search, found Lohse and brought him to the surface, the court heard. He had been in the murky, low-visibility water more than 90 minutes.
Mrs Lohse told the court that when she went to identify the body the next day she saw his left ear had a large cut and part of it was missing, and he had a cut to the left side of his neck.
Mr Morison said he had seen Mr Simpson on various occasions on his dinghy and said he did not drive fast.
Another witness, Rob Arro, who also dived to the seabed several times in an attempt to locate Lohse, said Mr Simpson normally 'pottered around' on the craft and was a 'slow boat driver'.
The hearing continues today before coroner Josiah Lam Wai-kuen.
