Inquests held into two diving deaths in 2017

An inquest has heard how two men who came to Donegal for diving expeditions in 2017, died within three weeks of each other in seperate tragedies off the coast of Donegal.
57 year old Johh Allwright from Bedfordshire, England, was part of a group of divers who left Downings Bay for Sheephaven Bay on July 28th 2017 to do a swin-through in a cavern.
In the second case, Canadian diver Randy McNalley from Alberta was diving on the wreck of the WWII cargo ship Pinto on 12 August 2017 when he died.
The inquest into the death of Mr Allwright, held at the Coroner’s Court in Letterkenny heard how on the 28th July 2017, due to weather conditions the diving group decided to do a shallow dive.
During the dive Mr Allwright was sucked into a side-cave and lost his mask, however he managed to get out of the cave and was seen clinging to rocks and shouting for help.
The inquest heard that he was airlifted to Letterkenny University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
According to RTE News, Coroner, Dr Denis McCauley ruled his death was a result of drowning and was a genuine accident.
Seperately, Randy McNalley had completed a dive as part of a group on 12 August 2017 when as he was coming back to the surface he suddenly dropped down again.
His body was recovered two days later and a post-mortem examination concluded he died as a result of hypoxia.
However, his equipment was monitored and it was found his cylinder had not run out of oxygen.
Dr McCauley concluded at 18m from the surface Mr McNalley lost consciousness and this was an accidental death caused by lack of oxygen but that said it was probably a health issue that caused his death rather than a diving issue.