Dubai: Family and friends of a 35-year-old Algerian diver who went missing off the Dubai coast on New Year’s Day are praying for his return, even as a massive search by the authorities entered the eighth day on Wednesday.
Adel Ait-Ghezala, 35, a PhD student in international relations from the American University in Washington DC, was spearfishing with three of his friends 22 km off Dubai Marina last Wednesday when he suddenly disappeared.
His wife Rana Ghaleb, 32, who was also with them on a boat, told XPRESS on Tuesday that her husband’s friends were distributing fliers with his details among fishermen along the coast, while Dubai Police and Coast Guard were braving choppy waters to look for him.
“The authorities have been very supportive and there’s a lot of love coming my way, but I miss my husband and I am waiting for him to come home. I feel helpless and devastated and I am praying for the best,” she said.
Rana and Adel came to Dubai on December 21 on what promised to be a great New Year vacation with family and friends. “My mother-in-law lives in Oman and Adel’s sister is in Abu Dhabi. We also have a lot of friends with whom we hang out here,” said Rana, who has been married to Adel for three years and three months.
A master’s degree holder in international relations, she was scheduled to return to the US on January 7. But that was not to be.
Dubai-based Nadim Majzoub, one of the three divers who was with Adel and Rana, said they had set out on their trip at around 11.15am on January 1 and all was well until they encountered a current 22 miles off the coast. The visibility also turned poor.
“The water conditions were murky. We had a visibility of two metres or less on the surface and around five metres at the bottom of the sea. So we decided to split, with one of us keeping watch from the boat along with Rana, while the others would descend and come up together. Adel and I went down together and our fins were just back to back.”
However when Majzoub surfaced, Adel was not with him.
“I held my head out waiting for him to pop up. But a minute passed and nothing happened. We got really worried when we didn’t see him even five minutes later. The other two divers went down looking for him, while Rana and I did a surface search. We also contacted the coast guard. ”
He said Adel disappeared at around 3.40pm. “He is a very experienced diver and just that morning he was saying how much he loved to dive, ” he added.
Adel’s supporters, who have launched a social media campaign to gain support, are hoping for a miracle, with some saying he may have been distanced from the boat by a current or he may have found his way to a tiny island in the area.
