Royal Australian Navy diver found unconscious in 4m of water on northern beaches
A Royal Australian Navy diver was found unconscious in 4m of water in Pittwater this morning before he was revived and flown to hospital.
Manly
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A trainee navy diver was found unconscious in four metres of water on Sydney’s northern beaches today.
The man, in his 20s, was diving in Pittwater, at Clareville, just before 10am.
Three ambulances and the CareFlight rescue helicopter were called to a Royal Australian Navy facility, known as the Pittwater Annex, on Hudson Pde, to treat the diver.
An ambulance spokesman said they responded to calls about a man being takekn from the water.
“The man was trated at the scene for what is believed to have been a medical episode,” the spokesman said.
The annex, near Taylors Beach, is used as part of the Australian Defence Force diver training school based at HMAS Penguin at Balmoral.
After being stabilised at the scene, the man was driven in an ambulance to Porter Reserve at Newport, to be transferred to the helicopter.
He was then flown to Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick in a stable condition.
The hospital has a specialist Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Unit that treats divers suffering with the so-called “bends”, or decompression illness.
The navy’s elite combat clearance divers train on Pittwater.
It also hosts the navy’s autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) pilot training course as part of a navy countermine project.
On Thursday evening, the ADF confirmed that a Royal Australian Navy member was taken to hospital following a dive training incident at Pittwater.
“He was observed to be in difficulty by the diving safety attendant and was brought to the surface from a shallow dive, unconscious, shortly after commencement of the dive,” an ADF spokesman said.
“The member regained consciousness and was transported to hospital for assessment. The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated.”