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A holidaymaker died during a diving course in Egypt after panicking and suddenly swimming up to the sea surface, a Birmingham inquest heard.

And Andrew Maybury, 34, may have gotten into difficulties because of ‘deficiencies’ in his training, while his nervousness had also gone unnoticed by instructors in Sharm El Sheikh, a coroner said.

The hearing was told the finance manager, from Western Avenue, Halesowen, had swum to a depth of 10 metres during the first of four planned dives and was carrying out an exercise with his breathing regulator.

But he ‘panicked’ after possibly breathing in water and shot to the surface - suffering a fatal brain injury.

The inquest heard there had been ‘deficiencies’ in the first part of his training in London and a delay in getting medical help when he emerged from the sea.

Area coroner Emma Brown said: “He had been taking part in an open water diving course when he suddenly returned to the surface without using his regulator and suffered a brain injury.

“It was not recognised by the instructor that he was nervous and that is probably a factor.

“Clearly there were deficiencies in the training that he had received in the first part of the course but I can not conclude that it was causative of the problems he encountered in the water.”

The coroner said although there had been delays in emergency services arriving she could not say that Mr Maybury would have survived if they had come sooner.

She recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Sean Skelt had also been taking part in the training exercise alongside Mr Maybury with Ocean College when tragedy struck on March 17 this year.

He said: “He took a normal breath and started to panic. In my opinion it looked like he had breathed in some water without clearing the regulator first. After that he swam immediately up.”

In a statement instructor Jeanne Cinquegrana said both Mr Maybury and Mr Skelt had seemed relaxed and eager to dive. They had dived down to 10 metres and had knelt on the sand before the former Aston University graduate made his sudden ascent.

“His arms and legs were flailing wildly,’’ said the instructor. “I tried to put the regulator in his mouth but he spat it out twice.

“We got to the surface and I asked Andrew if he was OK but I got no response and he then fell unconscious.”

The instructor said she got Mr Maybury to a jetty and that others, including two British paramedics, tried to help before emergency services arrived.

Suzanne Smith, the training director for the Professional Association for Diving Instructors, said Mr Maybury had undertaken the first part of his course at a swimming pool in London with Lodge Scuba. But it was later discovered that his instructor was not properly qualified and had been dismissed. She said Mr Maybury had also taken a written test, but this had been done unsupervised.

In a statement, the victim’s father Frederick Maybury said: “Andrew was a likeable young man, considerate to other people, Nothing was too much trouble for him,”

He added his son made friends easily and set himself goals and always tried to achieve them.

He had planned to marry his partner, Kate, later this year.

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