Face of Nation : There were “strong currents” near the spot on the St. Lawrence River where a well-known diving instructor disappeared last week, according to an experienced eastern Ontario diver.
Thomas (Andy) Phillips, 46, was reported missing the morning of June 11 after he failed to resurface while diving with a partner off Macdonell Island, about 15 kilometres west of Cornwall, Ont.
According to his biography on the Professional Association of Diving Instructors website, Phillips is originally from the U.K. but has spent the last 20 years travelling around the world as a professional diver.
“There was definitely some strong currents that day that they were diving,” said Dan Foster, the owner of the Deco Stop outdoor centre in South Lancaster, Ont.
In the days before Phillips’s disappearance, the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board had been increasing outflow from Lake Ontario to relieve flooding pressure. The river reached the maximum sustained flow on record on June 13, the board said.
Foster said while the current was certainly higher than usual, an experienced diver who knew what they were doing should have been able to navigate the swifter current.
Volunteer divers have been out searching for Phillips in similar conditions, he added.
“It’s a very easy dive if it’s done properly. If it’s not done properly, then it can be an extreme dive. There’s no question about that,” said Foster.
“And that all comes down to really local knowledge and being able to deal with the current and using the current to your advantage rather than trying to fight the current.”
Police also continue to search the waters near Macdonell Island for Phillips, who spent years working as an instructor in Honduras before his disappearance.
Marine units are expected to head out again Friday, said Const. Tylor Copeland with the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry OPP.
The island’s waters are particularly appealing to divers because they hold the ruins of the so-called “lost villages,” nine eastern Ontario communities submerged by the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s.
Foster called it his “favourite dive site of all time,” adding he’s probably made about 500 dives in the area.
“We can touch pieces of history down there that very few people ever get to see, or even hear about,” he said.
Although he’d never trained with Phillips, Foster said his still-unexplained disappearance has been tough for the local diving community to fathom.
“I do have a few of my instructors that actually became qualified instructors by him,” he said. “So to hear someone of that level and that stature that has an accident, it really puts a shock into the whole community.”
