21/10/2025
On 25 January 1998, American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan went on a scuba diving trip from Port Douglas, Australia, to St. Crispin Reef on the Great Barrier Reef. They did several scuba dives with a charter boat called Outer Edge. After the last dive, the crew did a headcount—the numbers looked fine, so the boat left. Tom and Eileen were still in the water, waving for help that never came.
That night, no one noticed they were missing. Their belongings were still on the boat, but the gear wasn’t checked carefully when everyone got off. Two days later, on 27 January, staff finally saw the unclaimed items and raised the alarm. By then, ocean currents had likely moved the couple far from the reef.
A five-day search began, using boats, planes, and helicopters over a huge area of sea. No one found the Lonergans. In the weeks that followed, pieces of dive gear washed ashore. Later, searchers found a dive slate dated 26 January with a message asking for help and saying they had been left behind the previous afternoon. The note suggested they survived at least one night, drifting under hot sun and strong tides in waters known for sharks.
A coroner later blasted the operator’s poor safety practices. The skipper faced criminal charges but was acquitted. Even so, the case changed rules in Queensland: two independent headcounts after every dive, passenger lists matched to physical checks, and better control of rental gear and logs.
Tom and Eileen were never found and were declared dead at sea. Their story became a major lesson in dive safety—and inspired the 2003 film Open Water.
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