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Oz rescue couple to profit from drift
A diving pair rescued after a 19-hour drift off the Great Barrier Reef look set to make a tidy sum from accounts of their ordeal.
Briton Richard Neely, 38, and his partner, American Allyson Dalton, 40, were plucked from the sea by a rescue helicopter on Saturday, about nine miles from where they had entered the sea from their day-diving catamaran charter-boat, Pacific Star, near Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands.
Experienced divers, they had a 2m-long surface marker buoy and tied themselves together using a weightbelt strap. They conserved energy and waited for rescue as they endured an afternoon, night and morning drifting in lumpy seas.
On recovery they were described as lucky to be alive, but in good spirits as they were flown to hospital suffering from mild hypothermia.
A day after returning ashore, Neely and Dalton were reported to have secured a deal with a British newspaper for an exclusive account of their experience, which included fear of attack by sharks. But reports of the amount involved have varied widely.
According to Australian media, a $1.1 million deal was struck with the UK's Sunday Mirror. Britain's Daily Mail has since put the figure at ?1 million, which would be nearer $2 million.
In stark contrast, an Australian web news service, Couriermail.com.au, put the amount at under $10,000, but added that interviews with various other press outlets could raise the figure to around $250,000.
Max Markson, an Australian celebrity agent appointed to represent the pair in media negotiations, has said that the $1.1 million (?533,000) newspaper deal figure is inflated, but that deals are being sought for interviews with Australian, British and American TV networks, and that book and film deals were possibilities.
Reacting to the claim that the pair had secured a large sum for a story, the Australian rescue services, backed by the Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, suggested that Neely and Dalton should consider making a sizeable contribution to the cost of their rescue, which involved seven helicopters, three planes and six boats.
Markson has said that Neely and Dalton will respond to that request. 'They are covered by insurance, so it will cover the cost of the rescue and they will be happy to make any donation necessary,' he told the Australian.
The request for a contribution was given added impetus by the reported claim of one of the charter-boat divers, Briton Matt Cawkwell, that Neely and Dalton had become separated through their own irresponsibility, venturing further from the vessel than advised and being whisked away by a current.
'He [Neely] was told to stay in the lagoon [in which the boat was moored],' Cawkwell told Australian media, 'but there's no way he could have done that and got lost.' Neely and Allyson are reported to have denied that they received such instructions - and that they did, in any case, surface within 200m of the boat but were not spotted.
This was disputed by Cawkwell, who said that the pair's absence was noticed and that eyes had been peeled for them, the other divers having returned to the boat 'when the currents started to pick up'.
'There were about 22 people standing on the roof looking for them,' he said. 'There were at least four pairs of binoculars, and it wasn't that rough. There's no way they came up near the boat or still in the lagoon.'
Cawkwell also disputed a claim that the charter-boat skipper had waited three hours before making an emergency call, thereby reducing search time before dusk fell. 'They went [in] at 2pm and they weren't due back 'til 3pm, and there is no way it was phoned after 6pm,' he said.
It has since been reported by Airlie Beach Water Police that the emergency call was made at about 5.30pm. It should have been made, said Sergeant Graeme Pettigrew, about an hour earlier. But he added that charges were unlikely, and that the matter was now being addressed by Queensland's Workplace Health and Safety department.
The dive operator, Ozsail, has stated that its crew acted appropriately once the couple were overdue. 'The crew immediately implemented our search procedures and policies, which are standard in the dive industry,' the company said. 'This entailed initially posting an extra lookout and completing the search of the dive area.'
Neely and Dalton are reported to have remained in Townsville since their rescue, planning the publicity deals.
General media interest in the incident will have been fuelled by the now famous story of another Great Barrier Reef drift ordeal, which ended tragically. In 1998, Americans Tom and Eileen Lonergan were left behind by their dive-boat and never seen again. The incident inspired a general release film, Open Water.
Neely, from Swaffham in Norfolk, has spent some years working as a diving instructor in Thailand. According to a former diving buddy at West Norfolk Diving Club, he's a 'calm chap' who 'always looked on the bright side'.
He has, by all accounts, ridden his luck well in recent years. He is reported to have spent eight hours in the water off Thailand after his dive-boat sank, and was one of thousands who had to evacuate during the 2005 Boxing Day Tsunami.
Related link
Eight saved after two-day drift
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