The seven Athlone divers rescued from the Atlantic last weekend on their first dive of the year, should only get a “b******ing” and not be condemned according to John Nolan, chair of the Kilkee Launch Authority, the body in charge of marine rescue in the village .
He also said the quoted €50,000 cost of the rescue was highly exaggerated and was “plucked from the sky”.
“Less than 10 grand would be a lot more realistic,” he said.
Last Saturday (March 14 ), the seven members of Athlone Sub Aqua Club made national headlines when they were swept more than half a kilometre from their safety boat by strong underwater currents while a three and a half metre swell hampered visibilty in the 10 degree water off George's Head in Kilkee Bay.
All bar one of the divers were wearing dry suits and their safety boat notified the rescue services after 30 minutes as planned.
However, they were not carrying a marker buoy with them at the time of the incident.
In open water diving, it is not yet a default procedure to have a float tethered to one of the dive team to allow the surface boat follow their underwater movements.
All seven were taken from the water within two hours of this call in a well implemented rescue that involved Valentia Coast Guard radio, the Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Kilkee Marine and Rescue Service, and the Irish Air Corps Casa maritime surveillance plane.
None of the divers required any hospital attention.
“The chopper was Shannon-based and was on station for less than an hour and the Casa was on patrol in the area anyhow,” said Mr Nolan.
The Sikorsky Irish Coast Guard helicopter costs an estimated €5,000 an hour to keep airborne and the cost to divert the Casa would be nominal.
“It wouldn't have done any harm if these divers had checked with the Marine Rescue Service to see if the diving was good or bad,” said Mr Nolan, who felt some of their criticism in the media was a little heavy over the weekend.
He admitted the conditions were heavy and that he wouldn't have gone diving that day.
“I found it very hard to get the rescue boat out,” he said.
“Our cox'n [skipper] said that if they go out beyond George's Head [the open Atlantic] that he wouldn't be going out. But they did and he had to go. It was scary.”
He suggested they could've gone to two other dive sites off Kilkee that are accessible from the shore.
“In fairness to the Athlone boys whenever they're here and we have a callout they'll always help,” he added, before affirming their experience.
“I wouldn't condemn them. They just deserve a b******ing. The following day it was like a lake out there.
“In fairness, if you had gone on an eight hour round trip from Athlone for the day and you couldn't get in, you'd be fairly frustrated.”
Chairman of the Athlone club Brian Duffy said: "Our members are experienced and have been diving in Kilkee for a large number of years. It was their opinion that conditions were safe and they did not foresee what happened.
"They are all safe and well after the incident and we will be carrying out our own investigation of the incident and will be putting measures in place to ensure something like this doesn't happen again. We would like to thank the rescue services for their prompt response on the day and we hope that lessons can be learned from this," Mr Duffy said.
