Thomas Joseph Lonergan (born 28 December 1964) and Eileen Cassidy Lonergan (née Hains; born 3 March 1969) were an American couple who were abandoned in the Coral Sea off Australia's northeast coast on 25 January 1998 during a group scuba-diving trip aboard MV Outer Edge. The boat crew did not note their absences until two days later. While search efforts resulted in the discovery of personal effects confirmed to be those of the Lonergans, they were never found.

The couple's disappearance resulted in "a crisis of confidence in north Queensland's dive industry" and tighter mandatory safety regulations for diving boats in Australia. Their disappearance served as the inspiration for the 2003 film Open Water.

Background

Thomas Joseph Lonergan and Eileen Hains, both graduates of Louisiana State University,

Disappearance

On January 25, 1998, the Lonergans were scuba diving with a group at St. Crispin's Reef in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The boat that had transported the group to the dive site departed before the Lonergans returned from the water. None of the vessel's crew or passengers noticed that the two had not returned to the boat.

The couple had recently completed a two-year tour of duty with the Peace Corps at Funafuti atoll in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu and were repeating that work in Fiji.

Investigations and trial

The couple was not discovered to be missing until 27 January 1998, two days after their dive when a bag containing their belongings was found onboard the boat. An air and sea search took place over the following three days.

In February 1998, a women's wetsuit of Eileen Lonergan's size washed ashore in north Queensland. According to Eileen's parents and family, the diary entries were taken out of context. The family, the coroner, Noel Nunan, and the Port Douglas police claim that only the pages that validate the suicide theory were leaked to the press, whereas the majority of the diaries remain unread except by the coroner, Port Douglas police, and the Hains family.

In June 1998, six months after the disappearance, more of the couple's diving gear was found washed ashore on a Port Douglas beach, approximately from where they were lost. Among these items were inflatable dive jackets marked with the Lonergans' names, along with their compressed air tanks and one of Eileen's fins. He was found not guilty, but his company Outer Edge Dive was fined after pleading guilty to negligence, and closed down. Queensland's government also introduced stiffer regulations, including the requirement that captains and dive masters independently confirm passenger head counts.

  • The American film Open Water (2003) was inspired by the Lonergans' disappearance; the film is set in the Caribbean and involves a couple who are abandoned at sea following an incorrect headcount; the couple are given fictitious names.

See also

  • List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea
  • Death of Suzanne Rees

References

  • Undercurrent: "Two Divers Left at Sea - Did the Headcount Fail?" .(Adobe Acrobat PDF document) at undercurrent.org
  • Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) Tom and Eileen Lonergan at peacecorpsonline.org
  • 13/1/2000 Diver's disappearance renews talk on safety regulations at abc.net.au
  • YouTube Tom and Eileen Lonergan: The Real People