Three British diving instructors, Kathleen Mitchinson, Charlotte Allin and her boyfriend James Manning, along with two divers from France and Sweden, had drifted for 12 hours before reaching land, some 20 miles from their dive site. They reported having to scare off a Komodo dragon while stranded there.
The five were discovered by park rangers and taken by boat to a medical centre on the island of Flores.
Mitchinson and her husband Ernest Leandowski run Reefseekers diving centre in Labuan Bajo on Flores, while Allin and Manning were reported to be on holiday before returning to Britain after working in Phi Phi, Thailand for the past two years.
Reefseekers had organised the dive off Tatawa island in Komodo National Park, but when the group failed to return to their dive-boat the alarm was raised. The area experiences strong and unpredictable currents. |
