A criminal investigation has formally opened against a scuba diving instructor in Argentina following the death of a 23-year-old trainee during a wreck training dive earlier this year.
Sofia Devries went missing on 16 February while diving with a group of seven students led by instructor Thiago Nahuel Pocovi, 26. Naval divers recovered her body two days later from the seabed at a depth of roughly 20 metres, near the spot where she was last seen.
On 6 July, criminal judge Marcela Pérez Bogado, who oversees the Puerto Madryn court in Argentina’s Chubut province, approved prosecutors’ request to open a formal investigation. She also accepted their provisional classification of the case as manslaughter. This marks the start of a preparatory phase in which prosecutors will continue gathering evidence to decide whether the case should proceed to trial.
Pocovi joined the court session by video link from Buenos Aires, where he lives. His lawyer did not object to opening the investigation, and Pocovi chose not to answer questions.
Poor visibility, group left unsupervised
According to prosecutors, Devries and her partner, Leonardo Alonso, were part of the training group diving on the wreck of the Hu Shun Yu 809, a former Chinese fishing vessel scuttled as an artificial reef in 2017 in the Golfo Nuevo, near Puerto Madryn’s Punta Cuevas Historical Park. The wreck sits at a maximum depth of 34 metres.
Visibility that day was described by prosecutors as very poor, making it difficult for the instructor to keep the whole group in view. Prosecutors allege that once the pair reached the bottom, they were left without direct supervision. Devries reportedly began showing signs of distress, removed her regulator, and drowned after running out of air while her partner tried to help her.
Argentine media previously reported that several divers in the group, including Devries, had recently completed their Open Water certification and moved directly into Advanced training to extend their maximum depth range. An earlier account citing judicial sources described Alonso struggling to equalise on the way down, the instructor experiencing a problem with his own buoyancy device, and Alonso attempting to share air with Devries before both tried unsuccessfully to ascend together. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death as drowning.
Three divers from the group were taken to hospital following the incident; two were treated for decompression illness and one was kept for observation.
Prosecutors allege Pocovi failed to meet safety obligations required of a diving professional. Under Argentine law, manslaughter charges apply where a death results from negligence, recklessness, incompetence, or a breach of duty of care. Investigators must now decide whether to formally request a trial.
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