Diver ran out of air while trying to untangle line

Inquest heard man used up his air while removing a weight caught on guide line above harbour wreck

A diver ran out of air and drowned after volunteering to remove a heavy weight from his dive group boat’s tangled guide line, an inquest has found.

Diving safety specialist, Nick Bailey, who works with the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, said he believes John McNally, 46, from Bruff in Co Limerick, quickly burned through his air supply while working strenuously at depths of up to 20-metres to free a 25kg weight from a shot line — a weighed down buoy-marked rope used by divers to guide them on to wrecks — while diving on a wreck off Roche’s Point in Cork last July.