The parents of Nathen Renze Chesters, the 13-year-old Anglo-Dutch teen who died after his dive group became separated from their dive boat off the coast of Malaysia in 2022, have launched a civil suit for negligence against the owners and two employees of the resort they were diving with.
British diver Adrian Chesters, 48, originally from Sheffield, UK, was participating in an Advanced Open Water Course with his son, Nathen, and a French woman, Alexia Molina, aged 18 at the time, under the supervision of Norwegian dive instructor Kristine Grodem when they became separated from their boat by strong currents.
Ms Grodem, who left the group in an attempt to seek help, was rescued 24 hours later, but it would be almost four days before Mr Chesters and Ms Molina were found, drifting into Indonesian waters. Tragically, Nathen died in his father’s arms during their last night at sea.
Chesters, a Malaysian resident and manager at Shell Petroleum in Kuala Lumpur, and his Dutch wife Andrea Van Der Zee, are taking action against Winter Snow, which trades as Sea Gypsy Resort; Richard Wills, the resort manager and manager of the associated dive centre, Dan’s Nasty Frogmen; and Kamil Bin Kassim, the skipper of the boat from which the father and son team were diving that day.
During a press conference announcing the legal action, Mrs Van Der Zee and her legal council, Azlina Abdul Aziz, made it clear that the couple are not seeking financial gain from the suit, but only to hold Sea Gypsy Resort accountable for its failures, and put pressure on the Malaysian government to improve regulatory oversight over the scuba diving business.
‘We trusted them,’ Mrs Van Der Zee told the assembled reporters, ‘but we found out after this incident that things were not right. Now I am seeking justice so that others don’t suffer the same fate because my son suffered so much before he died.
‘I cannot see him again. I never laid him to rest and I will never have the chance to visit his grave,’ she added. ‘This is the worst thing that could ever happen to a family.’
Timeline of the tragedy
The Chesters family checked into Sea Gypsy Resort on Malaysia’s Sibu Island on 2 April, 2022, in anticipation of starting their PADI Advanced Open Water Course, scheduled to run from 4 to 7 April. Mr Chesters made a fun dive with his son on the resort’s house reef during the morning of the next day, and a second dive by himself at Pulau Tinggi later that afternoon.
The AOW course began on 4 April, and the first two dives — one at sea and one beach dive — were made the following day without incident. On the morning of 6 April, the group was scheduled to conduct two open-water dives around two local dive spots, Pulau Tokong Raket and Pulau Tokong Sanggol.
The first dive was completed safely and without incident, with the weather at the time fairly calm but ‘with some waves and sea currents’, according to a copy of the legal proceedings sent to DIVE by the Chesters’ legal team. They began the second dive at around 11.40 am that morning, but surfaced after just 11 minutes from a maximum depth of 16.6m due to strong currents. Ms Grodem, the instructor, asked the skipper of the boat, Mr Kassim, to take them to a more suitable location, where they made a second descent shortly after midday.
The group was forced to surface from a maximum depth of 21.1m some 23 minutes later, but this time the boat was approximately 500m distant. The divers could see the skipper clearly, but even though Ms Grodem inflated her surface marker buoy (SMB), he was unable to see them. According to the court filings, it would also appear that Grodem’s whistle – the only one in the whole group – did not work.
The dive team continued to drift at the surface until they were out of sight. Grodem handed the group an SMB and then left them drifting as she attempted to swim to a nearby island to seek help, ultimately failing due to the strength of the current. She was found floating and exhausted at around 7.30 am on the morning of 7 April.
Chesters used a rope to tie himself, Nathen, and their dive buddy, Ms Molina together so that they would not become separated. They attempted to signal to passing boats but without success. They would be at sea for another three days.
Meanwhile, back on land, Mrs Van Der Zee and her daughter, Hayley, were asked to pack Adrian and Nathen’s belongings and move out of their room at the resort to make way for new guests. They were also asked to pay for a search-and-rescue boat, the cost of which they were told could be claimed from Mr Chesters’ employer.
Exhausted, severely dehydrated and badly sunburned, Nathen Chesters died at around 9 pm on the evening of 8 April. Adrian held on to the body of his son until he himself passed out. He woke to find his son’s body had disappeared during the night; just the rope that had tied the two together remained. Nathen’s body was never found.
Early in the morning of 9 April, Chesters and Molina encountered a Kelong – a floating fish farm – which they managed to board and awaken its owner for help. They used the Kelong owner’s mobile phone to call the dive centre and were subsequently collected by a charter boat before being taken to Pasir Gudang Hospital in Johor Bahru by the authorities.
Adrian Chesters and his wife were charged RM35,200 Malaysian Ringitts (~£5,900) for the boat that rescued him.
The failures behind a diving tragedy
The suit filed on behalf of the Chesters family by their representative, Azlina A Aziz & Co., cites negligence on behalf of the resort, the resort manager and the captain, for a string of failures leading to the tragedy. Among these is an allegation that Sea Gypsy Resort – despite having been in business for 30 years – did not have the necessary permits to conduct scuba diving operations, and may not have been properly insured for the activity.
The suit also alleges that Sea Gypsy Resort failed to ensure that the dive boat was ‘adequately human-crewed to the satisfaction of the Port Officer’ as per Malaysian Maritime Law – for which the resort’s owners have already paid a RM5,000 fine.
Furthermore, the suit also alleges that the resort’s owners failed to provide a trained and experienced boat driver for the divers and failed to train both the skipper and the resort manager, Richard Wills, in proper emergency management. Wills is also accused of failing to ensure that the boat crew ‘was trained, healthy, competent, and of an adequate number’ and failing to properly train and brief the skipper on the dive site.
According to the suit the skipper, Kamil Bin Kassim, had previously worked as a gardener and had very little boat handling experience other than ferrying garbage to the mainland, and did not have a permit to carry passengers. He did not speak English, had been on the job just one week and was found to have traces of methamphetamine in his system. Although it is not known if this contributed to the incident, the captain has already been charged and fined RM2,000 (~£330).
The resort is accused of failing to supply ‘safety equipment in preparation for unforeseen events’, and failure to supply reasonable safety equipment to each diver during the course, including waterproof, pressure-proof VHF radios and GPS tracking devices – still something of a rarity but increasingly common in areas prone to high currents. It is also alleged that the resort and Mr Wills disregarded weather and tidal advice that would have warned them of the strength of the currents.
One particularly significant failing is a reported lack of personal signalling devices. Although Ms Grodem had an SMB and whistle as required by PADI training standards, it is alleged that the whistle did not work properly. Moreover, it is reported that none of the individual divers had an audible signalling device, which, if proven accurate, is both a violation of PADI standards and a failing in basic dive safety protocols.
A PADI investigation following the tragedy – the details of which are currently confidential – resulted in the suspension of the dive resort (which has since been reinstated) and a thorough retraining by PADI’s Quality Management team. GPS tracking systems and dive-proof radios are now standard at the resort and extra training in emergency management has been provided to the staff.
The future
The lawsuit is seeking damages that amount to RM395,316 – approximately £66,000 – which covers little more than expenses incurred during the tragedy, such as the rescue boat the family had to pay for, travelling costs between Malaysia and the Netherlands, and the legal fees involved in the suit.
Ultimately, the family is seeking acknowledgement and responsibility for the needless death of their son, who suffered ‘extreme physical and mental agony for almost three days from hunger, thirst, dehydration and extreme sunburn’ before he slowly and painfully succumbed to his death.
Above all, the family hopes that lessons will be learned and regulatory bodies will take action to ensure such a tragedy never happens again.
‘In Malaysia, diving regulations remain unclear, so anyone can open a dive centre or resort by registering the company without a permit,’ said the Chesters family’s legal representative, Azlina Abdul Aziz. ‘We hope the government and relevant stakeholders will look into this issue seriously.’
The Pre-Trial Case Management will be heard on 3 October 2024 before the Johor Bahru High Court. Both PADI and Sea Gypsy Resort have been approached for comment.
