Posted by on January 13, 2005 at 09:16:30:
In Reply to: Australian diver's body recovered in South Africa posted by on January 12, 2005 at 22:46:26:
SOUTH African police have recovered the body of an Australian extreme diver who died on Saturday attempting to retrieve the remains of another diver lost in one of the world's deepest freshwater caves.
The Star newspaper reported today that police divers retrieving equipment used in the fatal rescue attempt recovered the body of Dave Shaw, an airline pilot with Cathay Pacific based in Hong Kong.
They also retrieved the remains of Deon Dreyer who died in the cave 10 years ago.
The bodies were found yesterday entangled in a cave line left behind by Mr Shaw in October during a previous dive, the newspaper said.
Police presumed Mr Shaw dead on Saturday after he failed to surface from a 270m dive in the Boesmansgat (Bushman's) cave in Northern Cape province while attempting to retrieve Mr Dreyer's remains.
Mr Shaw discovered Mr Dreyer's remains near the bottom of the cave, the third deepest freshwater cave in the world, in October when he set a new deep dive record.
Divers who viewed video footage from a video camera attached to Mr Shaw's helmet said it appeared the Australian diver got caught in the cave line.
"He kept trying to cut the line but he couldn't. He was breathing faster and faster," diver Peter Herbst told the newspaper.
Extreme diving involves advanced scuba training and divers use rebreathing equipment and a cocktail of gasses to survive at the extreme depth.
Before his fatal dive, Mr Shaw requested that none of his colleagues in a team of eight international divers try to retrieve his body in case of accident.
Mr Dreyer blacked out and drowned while diving in the cave in 1994, aged 20, during a family holiday.