A Diver's Preventable Death in the Azores: Undercurrent 01/2026

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Last October, Rob Burstein (Brooklyn, NY) and Sandy Sanford, aged 76 (Bakersfield, CA), with other friends, including Kirk Barrett, travelled to the Portuguese island of São Miguel in the Azores (Açores) to celebrate a 40-year-long friendship. It ended in an unnecessary tragedy.

Three of them booked a dive trip with Açorediving. After they arrived, their divemaster, Mateus (not his real name), checked their credentials, outfitted them with equipment, and they joined three other divers with a second divemaster and the captain. They wore rented 7mm wetsuits to account for the colder waters of the mid-Atlantic, and set off in choppy water in the dive center's RIB (rigid inflatable boat) to the first dive spot about 15 minutes away.

The first group entered the water, leaving Mateus to lead the second group with Rob, Kirk, and Sandy. Unused to such thick wetsuits, the three divers were unable to descend, so Mateus suggested they return to the boat to get additional lead.

Rob Burstein takes up the story:

"Mateus, along with Sandy and Kirk, was the first to return to the ladder, while I trailed shortly behind. Mateus instructed all of us to get back up the ladder and into the inflatable, telling Sandy to go first. After removing her tank and weights, she attempted several times, with increasingly exhausting effort, to grab the sides of the ladder and get her feet onto the first step. Her hands and feet continued slipping off, finally forcing her to fall back into the choppy water....

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