{"id":18498,"date":"2013-02-28T08:18:26","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T06:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/dive-master-in-dramatic-rescue\/"},"modified":"2013-02-28T08:18:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T06:18:26","slug":"dive-master-in-dramatic-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/dive-master-in-dramatic-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Dive master in dramatic rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \t\t \t\t February 27 2013 at 11:12am
\n By Kevin Lancaster, Bronwyn Fourie and Yusuf Moolla\n\t <\/p>\n

Comment on this story<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t \"IOL<\/p>\n

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS<\/p>\n

The NSRI conducting a search. Photo: Henk Kruger<\/p>\n

\n

\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n

Durban – A KwaZulu-Natal dive master is lucky to be alive after drifting for seven hours and 45km at sea while a full-scale search for him was under way on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre Els, 30, disappeared at about 8am while conducting a chartered group dive with African Dive Adventures off Shelly Beach. <\/p>\n

According to the local National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) station commander, Mark Harlen, it appeared that Els became separated from the group during the dive at the Protea Banks, 10km off the South Coast. <\/p>\n

The institute was alerted to Els\u2019s disappearance by the dive boat, and a search began. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deployed the Transnet National Ports Authority rescue helicopter, three NSRI sea rescue craft, and there were five private boats assisting in the search,\u201d said Harlen. <\/p>\n

After scanning the choppy waters for more than seven hours, Els was spotted by crew on the rescue helicopter. The 3m swells and a 30-knot wind had carried him 45km down the coast to Port Edward. <\/p>\n

\u201cDespite exhaustion, dehydration and some sunburn, he\u2026 will not need to be (admitted to hospital),\u201d Harlen said. <\/p>\n

A small crowd gathered outside the NSRI base at Shelley Beach to which Els was taken. Els appeared to be unhurt, but declined to be interviewed. <\/p>\n

In November, nine divers with African Dive Adventures were missing for four hours in the same area before being found. In an incident earlier this month involving another charter company, Calypso Dive and Adventure, Durban university lecturer Daxita Rajput died after disappearing off the Bluff. Her body was later pulled from the water. <\/p>\n

The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\t <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n\t \t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\"sign<\/a><\/p>\n

\t <\/p>\n

\t\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Comment Guidelines<\/h3>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Please read our comment guidelines<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Login and register, if you haven\u2019 t already.<\/li>\n
  3. Write your comment in the block below and click (Post As)<\/li>\n
  4. Has a comment offended you?<\/strong> Hover your mouse over the comment and wait until a small triangle appears on the right-hand side. Click triangle () and select “Flag as inappropriate”. Our moderators will take action if need be.\u00a0\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    February 27 2013 at 11:12am By Kevin Lancaster, Bronwyn Fourie and Yusuf Moolla Comment on this story INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS The NSRI conducting a search. Photo: Henk Kruger Durban – A KwaZulu-Natal dive master is lucky to be alive after drifting for seven hours and 45km at sea while a full-scale search for him was under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-18498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}