Authorities say a two-day air and sea search for a much-loved professional diver has been suspended in the Coral Sea off far north Queensland.<\/p>\n
The crew of the dive boat Clearwater, belonging to aquarium supplier Cairns Marine, reported their skipper, Timothy Bennett, 65, missing at 4:30pm Monday.<\/p>\n
Mr Bennett failed to surface following a deep-sea dive at Heralds Surprise Reef, about 150 nautical miles south-east of Cairns.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jena O’Connor says she and her husband, Tim Bennett, loved entertaining friends and family. (Supplied: Bennett family)<\/p>\n
Originally from Perth, Mr Bennett moved to far north Queensland in the 1990s, and lived in Kuranda with wife, Jena O’Connor.<\/p>\n
Ms O’Connor said the family had made peace with the conclusion of the search and their decision to leave his body at sea.<\/p>\n
“He’s in his happy place,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But I’m shattered. I’m devastated. I don’t want to even think about going forward without him. He was my best friend. He was one of the kindest, funniest, sweetest human beings on the planet.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Timothy Bennett had been the skipper of the Clearwater for more than 20 years. (Supplied: Cairns Marine)<\/p>\n
Ms O’Connor said her husband was admired and respected in the scientific world.<\/p>\n
His wife and employer confirmed several fish discoveries had been named after Mr Bennett, including Plectranthias bennetti, Tosanoides bennetti, and Bodianus bennetti.<\/p>\n
He previously worked in the east coast crayfish industry, pearled in Broome, and was passionate about exploring fish and birds.<\/p>\n
Ms O’Connor said that despite professional and scientific accolades, her husband considered his family as his greatest achievement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Timothy Bennett moved to far north Queensland from Perth in the 1990s. (Supplied: Cairns Marine)<\/p>\n
Mr Bennett’s daughter, Simone Bennett, said the family had been overwhelmed with tributes.<\/p>\n
“Dad was just the most loving and supportive and proud dad one could ever ask for, and he’s so proud of his family and proud of his job,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He was known and respected across the industry, not just for his skill, but because he was genuinely kind, generous with his knowledge, and a mentor to so many.”<\/p>\n
Ms Bennett said her father’s colleagues were devastated.<\/p>\n
“The crew undoubtedly did absolutely everything they could do, given the situation,” she said.<\/p>\n
Cairns Marine director Lyle Squire said Mr Bennett, a colleague of 25 years, was a diver of rare skill who could dive past 150 metres.<\/p>\n
“He’s well and truly in a class of his own,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lyle Squire Jnr is a third-generation coral collector and owner of Cairns Marine, the biggest coral harvesting operation on the Great Barrier Reef. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)<\/p>\n
Mr Bennett provided fish and live corals to hobbyists, wholesalers and aquariums worldwide, and his latest mission was to seek new species from a new patch.<\/p>\n
“Tim really is irreplaceable,” Mr Squire said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve done my deepest dive to 160 metres with Tim. I’ve shared a lot of things with Tim, and I probably have more respect for Tim as a diver than anybody else I know.”<\/p>\n
Mr Squire said that despite the risky nature of his work, Mr Bennett was meticulous in preparation and safety, fully servicing his gear the previous day.<\/p>\n
“Tim understood what he was doing. He knew what the constraints were. And then because of all those things, he didn’t view his work as dangerous,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He knows what his limitations are.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Colleagues of Timothy Bennett were devastated to lose their skipper. (Supplied: Cairns Marine)<\/p>\n
Mr Squire said Mr Bennett was diving the “highly unexplored” mesophotic zone between 60m and past 150m, where standard scuba gear is impractical and “rebreather” equipment is required.<\/p>\n
Air is recycled through a carbon dioxide scrubber and helium-based oxygen is injected into the system, allowing minimal decompression time.<\/p>\n
“Using a rebreather was a means to be able to do what he wanted to do, which was to find new species of fish unknown to science,” Mr Squire said.<\/p>\n
And on Monday afternoon, when Mr Bennett failed to resurface, it set in motion a grim plan the pair had discussed many times.<\/p>\n
“No-one’s coming to get you, and no-one’s ever going to know what happened,” Mr Squire said.<\/p>\n
“There are no divers in the country presently able to go down to that depth and even look for him.”<\/p>\n
Mr Squire said speculation was pointless.<\/p>\n
“One thing I can say with absolute conviction is that it would not have been because of human error,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He’s too well prepared, too professional.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The AMSA Cairns-based Bombardier Challenger 604 search and rescue jet aircraft extensively searched for two days. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mr Squire said the crew of the Clearwater dove up to 80m looking for Mr Bennett.<\/p>\n
“Nobody will ever know what has transpired,” he said.<\/p>\n
Queensland Police Service, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority are investigating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities say a two-day air and sea search for a much-loved professional diver has been suspended in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43110,195860,110963,195861,195857,31801,90242,134070,1044,43,90243,44,195858,131828,49527,195862,41,39,42,40,195859],"class_list":{"0":"post-358112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-amsa","9":"tag-aquarium-setup","10":"tag-boats","11":"tag-deaths-at-sea","12":"tag-deep-sea-diving","13":"tag-far-north-queensland","14":"tag-fnq","15":"tag-gimuy","16":"tag-great-barrier-reef","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-marlin-coast","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-ocean-diving","21":"tag-qps","22":"tag-scuba-diving","23":"tag-timothy-bennett","24":"tag-top-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topnews","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-underwater-exploration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}