'Profound sadness', recounts pioneer naval diver who located cable car in 1983 Sentosa tragedy

SINGAPORE: Almost 40 years on, retired fight diver Faustin Hogan nonetheless remembers the day vividly.Mr Hogan, now 61, was a part of the group that had been deployed for the search and rescue operation of the Sentosa cable car tragedy.Seven folks died when an oil-drilling vessel struck the cableway on Jan 29, 1983, dislodging two cable automobiles and sending them plunging into the ocean beneath.Recalling the day, Mr Hogan stated it had began out as a really quiet and uneventful Saturday.  “We were sitting down in our little corner in the camp at Pulau Brani then suddenly, we got word from the operations room that a cable car was down,” he stated.Mr Hogan, who left the navy as a Third Sergeant, was one of many dozens of pioneers from the naval diving unit who had been invited to the Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) elite fight diving unit’s fiftieth anniversary parade held at Sembawang Camp on Thursday (Dec 9).

STRONG CURRENTS, RISING TIDES

“We couldn’t believe it so we asked them if they were sure,” stated Mr Hogan, recounting the shock he felt then as a corporal in the elite unit.But it turned out to be true, and the group sprang into motion, grabbing their tools and racing to Jardine Steps, close to Sentosa.“When we reached, the first thing I noticed was the number of people there, I had never seen so many people on Jardine Steps,” he stated. What adopted was a virtually four-hour rescue operation that might final till the wee hours of the morning, and watched intently by the nation in a stay tv broadcast. “There were people on the ship that were telling us one direction, and another person pointing in another direction,“ he said. “There was a lot of noise because everyone was excited so they were pointing us in different directions.” “All that did was to confuse us.”