Californian tourist missing after Scuba diving in Indonesia
A Californian tourist is missing in Indonesia after failing to surface from a Scuba dive on Friday (August 7th).
Carol Marie Lakien, a professional dive instructor originally from California, reportedly went missing after diving with her husband in the waters off Amahusu Village in Ambon Bay in Maluku Province.
According to local media, Lakien's partner Kevin Scott returned to their yacht named "Aquabago" and waited almost five hours for her to surface before deciding to ask for help finding her.
A search and rescue team made up of police and army diving units has been working alongside local diving clubs to search the area but has after three days failed to find the 56-year-old.
Djunaidi, the man leading the rescue effort, said:
"We, from the Ambon City Basarnas, assisted by all the SAR potentials in this city, assisted by the local population, are working hard to help find and rescue this foreigner or tourist from America named Carol Marie Lakien. For the search for victims, we will all try according to the capabilities of the SAR team personnel who came to the location of the search. The weather is not good right now, but we are still trying. From the search and rescue procedures, we conducted searches for victims from morning to evening. And for the current SAR operation plan, we will carry out SAR operations for the next week until this victim is found. We hope that the prayers of all the people and families of the victims will be found as soon as possible."
According to local media, the American couple arrived in Indonesia back in February and had often dived in the area since then.