Rebreather diver finds body at 271m in Boesmansgat
Australian rebreather diver David Shaw was attempting a world record deep dive
on a rebreather when he came across human remains at 271m inside Boesmansgat
cave, South Africa.

50-year-old Shaw, who lives in Hong Kong, was attempting to break the 222m
depth set by three German divers at Safaga in the Red Sea in 2003. The dive
took place on Thursday 28 October at 7am.

As he descended inside the sinkhole at Boesmansgat, he came to the uneven,
sloping floor section and was forced to swim horizontally to achieve a greater
depth. When he shone his torch down the slope, he saw the remains of a diver.
Abandoning any attempt to go deeper, Shaw swam down and over to the body, and
attached his guideline to the diver's remains - which required considerable
effort at a depth of 271m. He then terminated the dive and ascended.

After completing 9 hours 30 minutes decompression, he surfaced, alerting the
authorities of his find as soon as he was out of the cave system.

The remains are believed to be those of 20-year-old South African Deon Dreyer,
who never returned from an attempted depth record inside the cave 10 years ago.
Shaw was unable to move the remains as much of the diving equipment on the
skeleton was embedded in silt.

Shaw was admitted to a recompression chamber the day after his depth record,
after experiencing pain and weakness in his arms. The symptoms may well have
been provoked by carrying out work at excessive depth. He was released after 5
and a half hours of treatment.

"Despite the danger to himself and the curtailing of his dive, Dave didn't feel
that he could ignore the remains. Hopefully a police team will be able to
recover the guideline and the body at a later date" Derek Hughes, the support
team coordinator, told reporters.

     

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