Diver probably ran out of air, inquest told

A Wellington woman died during a 2007 diving trip probably because she ran out of air, an inquest has been told.

Mother of three Jacqueline Ngapera, 37, became separated from her buddy while resurfacing from an early morning dive along Wellington's southwestern coast, off Makara Beach, on December 8, 2007.

Conditions at the time were near-perfect, and there were no faults which could be detected with her equipment, Constable Bruce Cook, of the police dive squad, told the hearing.

Ms Ngapera's diving buddy, Wiremu Pullen, said they each checked their air tanks at the start of the dive, and they were full. After about 20 minutes of diving, Ms Ngapera's tank was at 70 bar, still above the 50 bar at which they had agreed to resurface.

A short time later Mr Pullen lost sight of Ms Ngapera and had no choice but to resurface as his own air supply was getting low.

He changed tanks and searched for her again without success before calling emergency services.

He found her body on the seafloor when he returned to search again the next morning.

Mr Cook said that while Ms Ngapera had an advanced dive ticket, she actually had only limited diving experience.

As her air tank was empty when she was found, Mr Cook concluded she died from drowning.

Wellington regional coroner Ian Smith endorsed those findings and issued a series of standard dive safety recommendations.

- NZPA