On 17 August AP Vessel Management, trading as OzSail, pleaded guilty to a violation of health and safety law, as a result of which it failed to ensure the safety of Richard Neely and Allyson Dalton at Bait Reef, in North Queensland’s Coral Sea.
Yesterday, 27 August, Proserpine Industrial Magistrates Court passed sentence, fining the Whitsundays-based company $25,000 plus $5000 in costs. There was no criminal conviction.
Neely, 39, and Dalton, 41, were among a group of divers who had entered the sea from the charter vessel Pacific Star II. They claimed to have surfaced within 200m of the dive boat but, not spotted, drifted away.
When it was realised that the divers were missing, a search was mounted and the emergency services eventually called. Dusk fell soon after, delaying searches.
Neely and Dalton were found and retrieved by a rescue helicopter after a 19-hour drift, nine miles from their original position.
OzSail later claimed that Neely and Dalton had surfaced further away than they had said, otherwise they would have been seen.
Answering a police statement that it had delayed too long in putting out an emergency call, the company claimed to have acted appropriately regarding its search procedure and the call for help.
After investigation, Queensland’s Workplace Health and Safety Department decided that there was a case to answer. The court agreed.
Archive | 
Win a Luxfer pony cylinder
