A handsome friend of mine just pass away . Gerald Chia !

He went for commercial dive on the 18th Sept 2009.
And went missing in the midst of work.

I know him since when i am in primary school.. Same muai thai group with boyf, stay at my grandma house with my cousin for a time being. Really can't take it when i heard the news that he went missing on the sat, sun night a tragic news that they had found his body. went down his wake for straight 3days & everytime i step in i really hope that the person is not my fren, gerald.
this is so unreal. until now i still can't take it. There's 1 in 1000 chances but why must it be him??
A promising guy, with a bright future just gone like that.

Went to send him off yest, really can't hold back my tears . :(
why must it be you, gerald ?







THREE short days was all it took for Mr Gerald Chia to impress his supervisor, a commercial diving veteran of 20 years.

His 45-year-old supervisor, who wished to be known only as Mr Fong, told The New Paper last night: 'Gerald was one of the best divers I have ever supervised in my 10 years as a supervisor.'

Unfortunately, Mr Fong didn't get much of a chance to learn more about Mr Chia, 21.

Last Friday around noon - on Mr Chia's third day of work - tragedy struck.

Mr Chia went missing while on a dive at an oil rig at Jurong West Anchorage in Tuas.

Yesterday around 7pm, his body was found floating near the rig by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Police Coast Guard.

A police spokesman confirmed the identity of the dead man. The body was clad in blue overalls.

It was a huge shock to Mr Fong, who saw much promise in the young man, though they had met only last Wednesday.

He recalled: 'Gerald was always very helpful, without you asking he would just rush over to help.

'He would help out whether it was carrying oxygen tanks, checking if the torchlights had batteries or doing the preparation work. He was just very hardworking.'

Mr Fong described Mr Chia as someone 'very handsome, tall, just like one of the boys from F4 (a Taiwanese boy band).'

Although he was new on the job, Mr Chia was no diving newbie. According to Mr Fong, he was a certified diver and had 'a few years' of diving experience.

He was also qualified to be a dive instructor.

Mr Chia had undergone an orientation session on Wednesday, and completed his first dive on Thursday with another veteran colleague.

On Friday, it was his second dive on the job. He was again followed by a 'buddy', another experienced diver.

Together, they went down to an oil rig to complete some installation work.

Mr Fong, who was the supervisor in the dive boat, was holding on to a lifeline, which the divers could hold on to if they needed to come up to the surface.

Mr Fong explained that during such dives, one buddy typically stays attached to the line at any one time, while the other diver works.

Line went slack

However, around noon, Mr Fong felt the line go slack.

He recalled: 'I was pulling and I didn't feel any tension. When I pulled at the line, it just came up.

'I was shocked. I immediately sent my stand-by diver down to check.'

Mr Chia's buddy resurfaced 30 minutes later, saying he didn't know where Mr Chia was.

Mr Fong then activated a team of 10 divers and alerted the Police Coast Guard, who rushed down to the scene.

Their search operation was also aided by the Navy. Mr Chia's body was found about 54 hours after he went missing.

The Beatty Secondary School alumni's death clearly came as a shock to the many friends he had.

While he was missing, MrChia's friends dedicated a page to him on social networking site Facebook, titled 'Gerald Chia, Come home please!'

On it, over 100 of his friends dedicated messages praying for his well-being.

Yesterday at about 10pm at the Police Coast Guard in Tuas, a group of 10 gathered to wait outside as Mr Chia's body was identified by his family.

They, however, declined to speak to the media.

Mr Chia's family also hurriedly left the scene in a white Mercedes without speaking to the press.

Good friends like Mr Nicholas Tan, 30, who works in a bank, painted Mr Chia as a 'physically gifted and natural athlete'.

Mr Tan, then a muay thai teacher, had taught Mr Chia the sport when he was just 16 years old.

He told The New Paper: 'It was a group class but he was definitely my student with the most potential and he went quite far managing to qualify for the junior national Chinese kickboxing team in 2005.'

Mr Tan and Mr Chia would hang out socially, going clubbing, or just hanging out at the beach.

While Mr Tan eventually gave up teaching muay thai, the two would still occasionally meet up to train at a muay thai gym.

In fact, it was at the opening of a new gym about a month ago that Mr Tan last saw Mr Chia, who was there giving a martial arts demonstration.

Said Mr Tan: 'He looked contented, I would never imagine that would be my last time I would see him, he was a really great guy.

'I didn't know that he was going to be a commercial diver.'

To Mr Fong, the incident was a mishap and had a 'one in 1,000 chance' of happening.

Said Mr Fong: 'Commercial diving is like driving a car, everyone follows the rules and regulations.

'But just like how someone can knock into you, accidents can happen, we have to wait to find out more findings from the autopsy.'

“You can shed tears that he is gone,
or you can smile because he has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that he'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all he's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see him,
or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember him only that he is gone,
or you can cherish his memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.

Or you can do what he'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”