Leila Trott reef death: Dive instructor waited 40 minutes before calling for help, inquest hears

A CAIRNS dive instructor waited 40 minutes before making a call to help find his missing colleague on the Great Barrier Reef.

Leila Trott, 38, died while swimming out to retrieve a dinghy on the Great Barrier Reef in April 2016.

A CAIRNS dive instructor who waited 40 minutes before making an official call to help find his missing colleague on the Great Barrier Reef has described her death as a “freak occurrence”.

Leila Trott, 38, is believed to have died from a sudden cardiac episode while swimming to retrieve a dinghy off Green Island on April 6, 2016.

A coronial inquest into her death has heard Filippo Matucci had been watching his colleague but left his post to go for a two-minute toilet break.

Mr Matucci told the Cairns Coroner’s Court on Thursday that when he came back he could not see Ms Trott in the choppy waters but thought she was on the other side of the dinghy.

“I was assuming she was on the other side trying to jump in,” Mr Matucci said.

Dive instructor Filippo Matucci enters the Cairns Courthouse to testify at the inquest into the death of Leila Trott Picture: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

But after five minutes without any sign of her, Mr Matucci started to get worried.

He called skipper Rob Toomey on the island and nearby vessels to ask them to search for Ms Trott.

He also got in the water to look for her.

“I was duck diving, trying to go a little bit deeper trying to see anything, any shape,” he said.

“I thought the best choice I could do to help her was to be in the water, not on the radio.”

Mr Matucci waited 40 minutes before making an urgent pan-pan call over the radio, the last call before a mayday, but Ms Trott’s body was found in the water about 10 minutes later.

“I see they were taking her away with a white sheet and this lady told me there was nothing they could do,” he said.

Leila Trott died while swimming out to retrieve a dinghy.

Mr Matucci said what happened to Ms Trott was unthinkable and the only thing he would have done differently would be to challenge her decision to get in the water.

“Everyone was taken aback. It was just a freak occurrence,” he said. Mr Toomey said he did not think Ms Trott had made the right call to swim out to retrieve the dinghy, even though the fit skipper would have been able to swim the distance.

“In my opinion Leila shouldn’t have left the boat,” Mr Toomey said. Mr Toomey also said the pan-pan call would have been “useless” because everyone nearby was already aware of the search.

“I wouldn’t have been thinking about putting a pan-pan call straight away,” he said.

“I think (Mr Matucci) did the right thing — he called the closest vessel to him.”

The inquest continues.