Bodies of 2 divers recovered

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – The bodies of a US diving instructor and a Hong Kong tourist who went missing while exploring a World War II shipwreck off the Subic Freeport have been recovered, police and rescuers said yesterday.

Brady Favor, of the law enforcement department of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), said the two divers – Chinese national and Hong Kong resident Tin Shun Chuen, 30, and American Steven Brittian, 47 – were found trapped in the engine room of the sunken ship USS New York.

Favor said Tin’s body was recovered late Monday afternoon, while Brittian’s was only found yesterday morning. Brittian, a long-time resident of Olongapo City, was a diving instructor, while Tin was also an experienced diver training for “technical diving.”

“The victims seemed to have been trapped in the engine room of the shipwreck which was about 80 feet underwater,” Favor said.

He said the shipwreck, alongside that of sunken Japanese ship Shanmaru, is located in one of the shallowest portions of Subic Bay where other shipwrecks, mostly dating to World War II, have become an attraction to divers.

The USS New York was a US Navy armored cruiser scuttled in the bay to avoid capture by Japanese forces in World War II.

Brittian and Tin, together with their friend British national Chong Fong Lung, who also resides in Hong Kong, rented diving gear from the Sadeleir shop and headed off to Subic Bay for a dive into the wreck of USS New York at around 3 p.m. last Sunday.

Chong told probers that they had examined the sunken ship and were about to head to the surface with him on the lead, when he saw Tin heading back to the engine room where Brittian, who was lagging behind, seemed to be signaling for them to come back.

Chong said the water then became very murky and he lost sight of his companions as he held on to a rope that led him to their boat manned by a Filipino skipper. – With Bebot Sison, Ric Sapnu, AP