Lost divers failed to follow instructions, company says

The claims of an experienced British diver and his American girlfriend are being questioned by rescuers after the divers were winched to safety after being stranded for 19 hours in the seas off the Great Barrier Reef.

On Saturday Richard Neely, 38, and Allyson Dalton, 40, were found after they flown to New York with a celebrity agent after selling their story to media outlets. Neely is a professional diving instructor and Dalton is a dive master and they were separated from their group while diving at Paradise Lagoon. The couple said that they had watched their dinghy return the others to the catamaran, in an apparent repeat of the events that inspired the movie Open Water, which was about two divers who were left behind and died. OzSail is the the sailing and scuba company and they issued a fierce rebuttal of the claims and they say that the couple failed to stay within the 200m diving zone and they did not follow other safety procedures. A spokesman for the company said that the couple did not remain on the dive site and they did not listen to clear instructions that were given by the dive instructor. The company also questioned why the bright yellow signalling device that they said they had inflated was not sighted. Other people who were on the diving boat said that it was unlikely that the couple could have surfaced so close and not be seen. Ozsail also said that their boat was fully searched because that is in accordance with protocols and they said that emergency services were alerted within an hour. Neely and his girlfriend are denying any wrongdoing and they tell people that they are lucky to be alive. After an all-night search the couple were found and than flown to a Queensland hospital. Neely told sources that he thought that they were going to die and on Australian television he denied that he and his girlfriend ignored safety instructions and he said that they were on the dive site for the entire time of their dive time. Dalton said that the aircraft that was sent to rescue them spotted them drifting 7.8 nautical miles from where they were last seen. The couple tied themselves together and huddled to share body heat. Stuart Neely, Richard's father, came to his son's defense and said that no one would want to go through that and that is why it is not the couple's fault.