From time to time, the media and/or the diving community report a diver’s fatality. And while annual accident reports are available for fatal work-related fatalitie, there is no such thing for leisure activities. Although reports from abroad are available, such as those published by DAN (Divers Alert Network) or BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club), or foreign (especially Australian) studies, a comprehensive report from Czech Republic is missing. There is no information about many of them, and various rumors are circulating about others.
The only comprehensive database of accidents involving Czech and Slovak divers is the private database of a living legend – Jirka Hovorka. He has been recording fatal accidents involving Czech and Slovak divers for the past 60 years, including information that he has received about the accidents and their participants.
It is therefore absolutely amazing that Jirka decided to share his findings with SWARM readers. The article contains information about 185 diving fatalities that occurred between 1965 and 2025. Although in the case of many accidents, information was available only from public sources, or was not available at all. Even so, the authors of the article managed to compile relevant data and bring interesting results. For example, that the most fatal accidents occurred in the Czech Republic (followed by Croatia and Czechoslovakia), that the most affected age group was in their thirties (followed by those in their twenties and then those in their forties), and that most divers died during a solo dive or after a buddies split. You can find out this and much more in the article Diving Fatalities of Czech and Slovak Divers (1965-2025) in the SWARM magazine.
The full article can be read at: https://swarm.craa.cz/en/smrtelne-nehody-ceskych-a-slovenskych-potapecu-1965-2025
Alternatively, downloadable in pdf: https://swarm.craa.cz/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Diving-Fatalities-of-Czech-and-Slovak-Divers-1965-2025.pdf
