Fresh warning signs on wreck where diver died
Hazards include lack of light and disturbed silt
The Malta Red Cross has placed fresh underwater signs and is cleaning existing ones on the submerged wreck of the former ferry Xlendi where a diving fatality occurred last November.
The new signs supplement the old ones and are located on the inside and the outside of the wreck, which sits at the bottom off Ix-Xatt l-Aħmar, in Mġarr and where Paul Swain, 49, a diver with over 20 years' experience, died.
A coroner's inquest conducted in Hartlepool had concluded in February that the death could have been avoided had clear danger signs been in place. However, it also deemed the death accidental.
The Englishman had last been seen by a colleague entering a hatch leading into the former cafeteria of the scuttled Gozo Channel ferry on November 3.
Mr Swain's dive buddies failed to locate him and were forced to stop searching after the air in their cylinders ran low.
His body was recovered 15 days later, on November 17, partly buried in silt, by the Civil Protection Department.
The MV Xlendi sank on a steep sand bank and overturned, embedding itself in the silt that continued to accumulate. Divers are easily disoriented because of the lack of light and disturbed silt, which is caused by fins and gear.
Some time before the fatality, the Red Cross had placed reflective signs warning divers not to enter. These signs had been cleaned of algae just a week before Mr Swain entered the ship.