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.

Mr Kitching-Howe was awarded a bronze medal for bravery by the Royal Humane Society at a ceremony held at Haberdashers Hall in London.

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.’

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