Manila: A German diver survived a “decompression sickness” after he was placed in the decompression chamber of the Philippine Coast Guard’s ship, following a 180 feet deep dive into a sea in central Philippines, during a search and retrieval operation on Tuesdayday for Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and the two pilots who died in a plane crash last Saturday, a TV report said.

“Danny Brumback has recovered 95 per cent, but he is still under observation,” said a Philippine Coast Guard official.

All other local and foreign divers were pulled out from the sea off Masbate City, after Brumback was found unconscious, his mouth frothing, by fellow divers at past nine in the morning.

He was brought up to a rubber boat and then rushed to an ambulance on shore that brought him to a nearby hospital, but medical authorities said they did not have the equipment to treat his condition/

The same ambulance rushed him back to the beach and he was brought to a decompression chamber of BRP EDSA, which was stationed offshore.

Brumback suffered decompression sickness in which the nitrogen content of his body turned into bubbles when he ascended “quite fast” to the upper level of the sea, said a doctor on TV.

Brumbach and his Filipina wife are based in Bohol, central Philippines). They went to Masbate on Monday night after Philippine-based foreign divers were asked to assist in the search for Robredo and the two pilots.

The retrieval of the two pilots of the ill-fated Piper Seneca I light plane was aborted because of the incident.

“My divers under water are still decompressing. We immediately aborted the diving operations. We have to take care of the divers. We have to make sure that they are okay,” Philippine Navy Capt. Rommel Galang explained in a TV interview.

Other divers also expressed fears that the fuselage of the plane where Robredo was plucked out, might be carried by strong undercurrents to a deeper area of the sea.

An open water scuba instructor, Brumback is a member of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.