Coast Guard investigates
diving accidentAn instructor and his student
are injured when a tour boat's
propeller hits them
LIHUE >> A Coast Guard investigator was on Kauai yesterday interviewing witnesses to an accident in which two divers from one Na Pali Coast tour were run over and severely injured by another tour boat.
Dive instructor Matt Isham lost his left leg in the Tuesday accident, and one of his students received serious arm injuries when both were hit by the boat's propeller.
Both were reported in stable condition at Wilcox Memorial Hospital yesterday.
The Blue Dolphin, a catamaran, was returning to West Kauai late Tuesday afternoon and had made a regular stop at a bay so that passengers could go snorkeling, according to Blue Dolphin marketing manager Ray Frechette.
Passengers are given the opportunity to make an introductory dive using scuba.
Isham was leading a group of divers, none of them trained in scuba diving, when one of them panicked and swam to the surface. Isham followed him up.
"When they looked up, the boat was right there," Frechette said. "Matt did a pretty courageous thing by trying to shield the student while they both tried to get back down, but he was one kick too late."
The boat that hit them was the Spirit of Kauai, operated by Captain Andy's Catamaran Cruises.
The Spirit of Kauai's three-member crew immediately picked up the two injured divers and took them to the cruise ship Pride of Aloha, which was nearby.
Both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard credited the Pride of Aloha medical crew -- Dr. Edward Birdsong and registered nurses Michael Sakalauskas and Terri Johnson -- with saving the lives of the two men.
From his hospital bed yesterday, Isham told friends that he remained conscious until he was aboard the cruise ship and was assured he was receiving medical care. Even then he joked, telling the doctor how to apply a tourniquet.
A UH-3H helicopter from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, Kauai, airlifted the two men to Kauai.
The Navy helicopter, flown by pilots Lt. Bill Reilein and Lt. Adam Schultz, launched within 15 minutes of receiving a request for assistance from the Coast Guard at about 5 p.m. The helicopter hovered 20 feet over the cruise ship while Petty Officer Christopher Szabo was lowered onto the ship and worked with the ship's medical crew to prepare the injured men for hoisting.
Petty Officer Damon Baggs operated the hoist and secured the injured men on the helicopter.
By 5:45 p.m. the injured men were aboard the helicopter and on their way to Lihue Airport where an ambulance transported them to Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
Officials did not release the name of the student diver who was with Isham.