Miraculous moment ‘vomiting’ scuba divers are rescued by boat off Hawaii coast after hours of treading water
A group of five divers were found ‘grayed’ by a couple sailing off the coast of Hawaii after accidentally drifting away from their tour group.
Camila Storchi and her husband Ryan Sullivan, of Kaneohe, were en route to Honolulu on Wednesday when Sullivan heard faint screams near the cliff of the China Walls, they revealed in a Instagram post.
“He heard screams for help and started scanning the ocean, and we saw five little dots,” Storchi said Hawaii News Now.
They found five divers clinging to each other to stay afloat after accidentally becoming separated from their tour boat a few hours earlier.
One of them was already showing clear signs of hypothermia.
Camila Storchi and her husband Ryan Sullivan of Kaneohe were sailing to Honolulu on Wednesday and listening to Wise Man by Mihali when the latter heard faint screams as they walked around the Great Walls of China.
“He heard screams for help and started scanning the ocean and we saw five little dots,” she said. They found five divers all clinging to each other to stay afloat and one in the midst of hypothermia after accidentally being separated from their tour boat.
“One of them was gray and he was throwing up,” Storchi told the outlet. “My husband tried to pull him, but he couldn’t even hold the ladder. We tried to pull them up, but the boat was rocking back and forth.”
Unable to get the desperate divers on board, they called the U.S. Coast Guard and circled the divers for 45 minutes until help arrived by helicopter.
In the meantime, they offered the divers, who were not identified, water and spoke to them to keep them in “good spirits,” Storchi said on Instagram.
When the Coast Guard helicopter reached them, another boat appeared out of nowhere and picked up the divers and took off, which the couple found strange.
“When the helicopter got low, this boat came quickly, scooped them up and took off,” she told Hawaii News Now.
Unable to get the desperate divers on board, they called the U.S. Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard helicopter reached them, another boat appeared out of nowhere and picked up the divers. The Coast Guard said the boat was owned by the dive company – which itself was later identified as Aaron’s Dive Shop
“When the helicopter got low, this boat came quickly, picked them up and took off,” Storchi told Hawaii News Now
The Coast Guard said the boat was owned by the dive company — later itself identified as Aaron’s Dive Shop — which heard the sailboat report the stranded divers and headed their way.
“The helicopter arrived on scene and relayed the position to the Honey Ann (submersible) which sailed to the location and picked up the divers,” the Coast Guard told Hawaii News Now.
The divers later told Storchi that a sixth diver remained on the boat who told them that the “captain wasn’t watching anything.”
It wasn’t until the lone diver noticed the Coast Guard helicopter that he said to the captain, “Look, there’s a Coast Guard helicopter, maybe they’re there.”
Aaron’s Dive Shop told Hawaii News Now that they are “grateful that all divers returned safely and without injuries after last week’s incident.”
The divers told Storchi (pictured) that there had been a sixth diver on the boat who told them that the ‘captain was not watching anything’.
“We are currently evaluating what happened and our current protocols with our dive and boat staff to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
Shop owners said the dive location was changed at the last minute and protocol “was not followed.”
“The dive leader took responsible steps to ensure safety, including having proper marker buoys on the surface and keeping the group together while separated from the boat,” they said in a statement to the diver.
‘Aaron’s Dive Shop is proud of our excellent safety record and we remain fully committed to maintaining our high standards through consistent training and strict supervision.’