Romanian diver missing at sea in Phuket, Thailand

The search continues today for a Romanian man who went missing while diving in the waters of Phuket in southern Thailand yesterday.

At 12.40pm, officers at Chalong Police Station were informed that a Romanian diver went missing off the coast of Promthep Cape.

At 9am, 46 year old Sebastian Emil Somesan, 47 year old Alexandru Florin Miron – both of Romanian nationality – and an unnamed Thai woman left Nai Harn Beach on “Shawnika” the speedboat, owned by Somesan, and headed toward Koh Kaew Nok island.

As the trio attempted to anchor the boat to go diving, they encountered a problem and the anchor got stuck, said Miron. Somesan dived under the boat to assess the problem but did not resurface again, he said.

Miron said that perhaps the anchor was stuck on a rock and that his friend attempted to dive to the seabed to free it. The depth of the water might have been a problem, he said.

Miron’s 42 year old wife Nichakamon Theparak said that her husband called her for help at 12.45pm. He asked her to get urgently get in touch with lifeguards on the Rawai side of the island because Somesan did not come up from the water.

Lifeguards and Rawai Subdistrict Municipality mobilised a search party, joined by the Marine Police, Tourist Police, Navy Region 3, and officials from the Phuket Kusaldhamma Foundation.

The search party also sent out a message to all tourist boats and fishing boats in the area to help look out for the missing diver. The search was called off last night and resumed again early this morning.

According to Nichakamon, Somesan frequents Phuket often because his daughter and wife are based there. Nichakamon said the two Romanian men are close friends and regularly go out on boat trips together.