By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa
Variety News Staff

A SCUBA diving school on Saipan has been sued by the father of one of the divers who drowned in 2005 at the Grotto.
Hideki Morita, through attorney William M. Fitzgerald, filed a complaint against Scuba World Inc., doing business as Pastime Saipan, in federal court yesterday.
Morita is the father of Megumi Morita, one of the two divers who died while diving at the Grotto. The other diver was Mayumi Fukuda, a diving instructor.
The father filed a complaint of wrongful death against the defendant for failing to follow proper procedures in conducting the PADI Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver course; for providing an incompetent diving instructor; for failing to provide adequate safety instructions and a dive plan; for providing malfunctioning equipment; for taking Megumi Morita on a dive when the day in question was dangerous because of weather conditions and far beyond the ability of the victim which was known to the defendant.
The defendant, moreover, according to the complaint, failed to follow proper safety and emergency procedures during the dive; failed to resolve the victim’s problem underwater and negligently took her to the surface; and failed to have emergency oxygen at the dive site.
The complaint stated that the defendant’s conduct constitutes gross negligence and reckless disregard of Megumi Morita’s safety.
According to the complaint, Megumi Morita’s parents suffered pecuniary loss which includes but it not limited to loss of economic benefits as well as grief and emotional distress.
Hideki Morita is seeking special and general damages, exemplary and punitive damages according to proof and such other relief as the court deems appropriate.
He is also demanding a jury trial on all issues.
The complaint stated that Megumi Morita and her friend Naomi Tsumura completed the PADI open water scuba diver course in May 2005 in Okayama, Japan.
The two student divers were awarded certification cards as open water divers.
The PADI is an international organization that conducts scuba diving courses and certifies divers at various skill levels.
Students are encouraged, upon completion of the open water course, to take the PADI advanced open water course which allows them to take special courses.
Megumi Morita and Naomi Tsumura wanted to improve their skills and learned that H.I.S., a Japanese travel agency, was advertising a package tour to Saipan that would allow them to obtain advanced certification as PADI advanced open water divers.
The two purchased the package tour and the PADI and Pastime Dive Shop undertook the responsibility of providing instruction and supervision of the advanced open water course to Megumi Morita and Tsumura.
The two left Osaka on July 15, 2005 and arrived on Saipan in the early morning of July 16, 2005.
The two were taken to their hotel and slept briefly before they were required to report to the Pastime Dive Shop.
According to the complaint, Morita and Tsumura were given no materials or instructions before they were taken to Laulau Beach for their first dive.
The complaint stated that the instructor assigned to them did not inquire about their dive experience.
Included on this dive, which was the first dive of the course, were four other divers who were not taking the course but were under the supervision of the same instructor.
The complaint stated that despite the turbulent sea and adverse conditions, Morita and Tsumura were instructed to dive at the Grotto as part of their course.
Led by the instructor Fukuda, the group including the two victims, descended to the bottom of the Grotto and then proceeded out to the open ocean through one of the tunnels.
Megumi Morita encountered difficulty with her equipment and signaled that she was having problems.
Fukuda went to her and the two of them began to slowly rise to the surface.
Morita was later found lying on the floor of the ocean without her regulator in her mouth. She was brought back in through the tunnel and to the surface and taken out of the water where CPR was performed, but to no avail. She was pronounced dead later at the Commonwealth Health Center.
Fukuda’s body was found the next morning, miles away from the Grotto.