English diver's body recovered in dangerous situation

The body of British diver Paul Swain was yesterday recovered from the bowels of the scuttled ship Xlendi, three days after the corpse was located by the Civil Protection Department.

CPD director Peter Cordina said bringing up the body of Mr Swain, 49, had been very difficult because of the wreck's position, the darkness and floating silt.

Moreover, he said, the body of the engineer and part-time diving instructor had swelled up, making it harder to pull him through a narrow hatch.

He was finally brought ashore at 11 a.m. by a troop of 10 CPD officials and members of its Spider team of volunteers, who specialise in technical diving operations.

Mr Swain was last seen on November 3 by his diving buddy entering the cafeteria of the wrecked Gozo Channel ferry located at a depth of 40 metres in the area known as Ix-Xatt l-Aħmar. According to the eyewitness account, the two swam some 20 metres into the overturned wreck before entering a second hatch leading into the chamber.

At some point, however, the two lost sight of each other and became disoriented because of the silt floating inside.

Mr Swain's buddy eventually found his way to the exit but still could not see his mate. He tried looking for him but when his air was thinning out he had to surface.

The initial search was called off two days after Mr Swain disappeared because rescuers scouring the wreck concluded the chamber he was last seen in was too dangerous to enter because of loose debris. However, spurred by the account by Mr Swain's buddy, who retraced the man's last movements, the CPD got their hands on the plans of the ship's layout and renewed its recovery efforts.

Mr Swain came to Malta last month to explore the Xlendi together with nine others from a sub aqua association based in South Hetton, in Durham.

He was a founding member of the association and also its training officer and regional deep rescue examiner. He lived in Low Grange with his long-term fiancée Louise Walsh.

Friend and fellow club member Brian Weatherall told a British newspaper, The Northern Echo, that Mr Swain was the most experienced diver there: "He's the most motivated of all of us and has done well over a thousand dives".