Scuba instructor receives bravery award for 17-diver Ċirkewwa rescue

//Scuba instructor receives bravery award for 17-diver Ċirkewwa rescue

Scuba instructor receives bravery award for 17-diver Ċirkewwa rescue

A Malta-based scuba diving instructor from North Yorkshire has been awarded for his bravery aiding with the rescue of 17 divers off Ċirkewwa, Malta in March 2024. PADI Course Director Marcus Kitching-Howe, originally from Swainby and now owner of ABC Diving in St Paul’s Bay, Malta, had just finished a training dive at the popular wreck of the Rożi tug boat when conditions began to deteriorate.

Winds during the afternoon of 26 March, when the incident occurred, were reported to have reached up to force six on the Beaufort scale, with gusts of up to force nine (strong gale force) recorded in more exposed areas. Realising that groups of divers were struggling in the incereasingly heavy seas, Kitching-Howe tied a 12-metre length of rope to a handrail leading down to the entry point and headed into the water.

He spent around 30 minutes battling the waves to reach the divers, bringing them to the rope so that they could pull themselves towards the exit point. Ten divers were able to escape the water before Kitching-Howe was informed that Armed Forces Malta (AFM) rescue personnel were on their way, at which point he instructed the remaining divers to head away from the rocky shoreline where it would be easier for them to be collected. Shortly after exiting the water he noticed two divers still close to the rocks, one of them supporting the other and calling for help. One diver was holding another in his arms,’ Kitching-Howe told the Times of Malta following the incident. ‘This diver was not kicking his legs, still had the regulator in his mouth, and was being kept afloat by the other diver, who was calling out for help and waving out to us.’ Kitching-Howe returned to the water to find the diver being supported – a 45-year-old Dutchman – was unresponsive.

He initiated rescue breathing but, tragically, was unable to save the diver who was later pronounced dead at Malta’s Mater Dei hospital. The Royal Humane Society’s awards are given to people who enanger their own lives in order to save others. ‘I am honoured to receive the award,’ he said after the ceremony. ‘I just acted instinctively and it is a day I will never forget, especially the tragic loss of one of the divers who was in the water at the time.’

By |2025-07-11T23:32:05+01:00July 11th, 2025|Categories: Latest News|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

About the Author:

Jeff was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and during a holiday to Turkey in 2001 he opted to try diving, he became hooked and enrolled into his PADI open water diver course. He soon completed other dive courses, The PADI Advanced Open Water diver course and then PADI Rescue Diver course. In 2005 he became a PADI Divemaster, diving both in the UK and abroad. Working in such countries as Oman & U.A.E Jeff became a PADI Instructor in 2007 teaching in Thailand & Gran Canaria. Jeff is now teaching diving in the UK and wants to teach you “the way the world learns to dive”.