“I felt something was not right,” said Mr Jin. “We informed the captain when we disembarked from the boat … but no one showed up.”
At that moment, the tourists wanted to swim towards shore as the sun had yet to set. But the diving coach Ms Meng was certain someone would pick them up and asked the group to wait a little while more.
“She said (the boat crew) got off work at 5pm, they wouldn’t have forgotten us. We finished our diving test before 4pm, and we waited until 6.15pm,” said Mr Jin. “We waited two hours and no one came to pick us up.”
The group eventually began swimming back to shore, reaching dry land at about 8pm, according to CNR.
Mr Jin’s ordeal swiftly went viral on Chinese social media, with many people expressing shock that such an incident could happen. One Weibo user described the incident as “terrifying”, in a comment that drew close to 1,300 likes.
“Not a single communication device, nor a boat to wait (for you) when you bring someone out to dive in the sea. What if something happens? How are you supposed to get help?” wrote another user.
INVESTIGATION FINDINGS
As the incident made the rounds online, local officials responded, saying they had launched investigations. On Tuesday (Jun 25) night, the Wanning city government published a detailed report on its official WeChat account.
According to the authorities, Ms Meng was only a “social sports instructor” and not a qualified diving instructor as she had claimed to be. Mr Jin and the two other tourists had each paid 3,480 yuan for her services.
The report stated that Ms Meng had contacted a company to assist her in getting a boat out to sea – with a charter fee of 1,150 yuan and a 300 yuan deposit.
After agreeing on the price and duration, the company’s manager engaged another firm, a sailing club, to take a vessel out to sea on Jun 9.
On the day of the incident, Ms Meng’s group boarded the vessel with six other tourists to the waters near Zhouzai island.
The report stated that the vessel’s captain, surnamed Wang, arranged for a crew member to transport Ms Meng’s group to a spot 600 m away for their diving test. Ms Meng told the crew member that they would take about one and a half hours, and it was agreed the boat would return to pick them up.
Mr Wang believed the diving expedition would take longer than Ms Meng estimated, and decided to transport another batch of tourists to Zhouzai island before picking her group up.
As a result, no boat was on hand to pick up Ms Meng and the three tourists when they finished their diving test at around 4pm.
“With no phones and no way to contact anyone, the four divers (eventually) began swimming towards the shore without waiting for the vessel to pick them up – each pulling an emergency floating ring,” the report stated.
