Four Divers Swept Away by Strong Currents off Flores; Indonesian Rescuers and Fishermen Mount Overnight Search
MAUMERE, Indonesia — Four divers were swept away by strong currents and went missing on October 4 in waters near Pulau Pangabatang in Sikka Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, off the island of Flores. The missing were two Irish tourists, an Austrian tourist and an Indonesian dive guide. The Maumere Search and Rescue Office, part of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency Basarnas, raised the alarm at about 2:10 p.m. and launched a joint search with the Indonesian Navy, the East Nusa Tenggara water police and local fishermen.
The dive site, in the Maumere Sea Gardens area, is known for its sloping coral reefs and walls — and for notoriously strong currents. The divers had split into two teams, each with a local guide. The first group, 60-year-old Dutch tourist Bart Hazes and his 25-year-old guide Maria Rosa Hariana Djaa, surfaced as expected. The second team was caught in the underwater current and failed to return. The missing were Austrian tourist Patricia Retter, 43, Irish divers Dervla Mulligan, 28, and Darragh McKiernan, 27, and their local guide Frederik Horimpun, 39.
The first breakthrough came the same afternoon: local fishermen found Retter at about 4:30 p.m. in the water between Pulau Babi and Nangahale, roughly 3.7 miles from the dive site, and she was taken to Nangahale for medical treatment. The search for the other three continued overnight. On Monday, October 5, Mulligan and McKiernan were found floating at sea about 5.9 kilometres from where the group disappeared, still using their scuba equipment to stay afloat — healthy, but exhausted. Guide Horimpun was also brought to safety. All four survived.
Fathur Rahman, head of Basarnas Maumere and coordinator of the rescue mission, said the two Irish divers were still using their dive gear when rescuers reached them: they were healthy, just exhausted. The waters around Flores and Komodo are known for fast-changing currents, and the incident was the most serious diver-missing case of this dive season in the area. Local authorities said the rescue and the operator's safety procedures would be reviewed.
Sources: Compiled from the New York Post (October 8, 2026), The Irish Sun, and Indonesian coverage by Pos Kupang and detikBali.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 东努沙登加拉省拉布安巴焦港的船只，弗洛勒斯海域是印尼热门潜水区，Isabell Schulz 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0（Wikimedia Commons）
