A diver from Poland went missing during a dive in Attersee

On Saturday, 5 August, a diver from Poland went missing while diving in the Attersee reservoir. The accident in the well-known Austrian diving site should have happened during a dive conducted in the early afternoon. The missing man was accompanied by two other divers. The entire case has been reported in the German-language media since yesterday.

Three of our compatriots aged 49, 46 and 50 started the dive at around 14.40 at a place called “Schwarzen Brücke” (Black Bridge – ed.). The missing 49-year-old was leading the group during the dive. As local police established, he overtook his companions by a depth of about 10 metres during the dive.

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When the other two reached a depth of 54 metres 2 minutes after the dive, they met up with their companion. It was then established by means of signals that all was well. The colleagues communicated to the 49-year-old that they were going to surface. The third man responded by letting it be known that he intended to go a little deeper still. However, when he did not surface after a long while, the other two decided to alert the relevant services.

They reported their colleague missing late in the afternoon at around 17:45. 16 divers were deployed in the area and searched the water to a depth of 50 metres. The search operation continued until dusk at around 9 p.m. 10 divers from the fire brigade, 24 divers from the water rescue service and boats from Nußdorf, Weyregg, Litzlberg and Unterach assisted in the search for the missing man.

As the Polish diver has not been found so far, further searches are also planned for Monday. This time, in addition to divers, specialised equipment (including an ROV robot) will be used, which will allow the area of the lake to be combed much deeper.

[blockquote style=”2″]”Unfortunately, our capabilities allowed us to conduct searches to a depth of 50-60 metres. We also do not have many technical divers in the region whose training would allow us to carry out a similar operation below this depth. Now we will be helped by a robot from the “Cobra” unit and video equipment provided by the fire brigade,” said Martin Eberl of the Upper Austrian Water Rescue Service.[/blockquote]

“Schwarzen Brücke” is a very popular, but also extremely dangerous diving location. Many fatal accidents involving divers have occurred here in recent years.

Information about the whole incident was sent to us by one of our readers, for which we would like to thank you.

Source: polizeibote.at, nachrichten.at, heute.at