Hi Peter,
Thanks for that, I’ll give it some thought.
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In my local pool when I was a boy, every changing cubicle had a mirror carrying the advertisement “After bathing take Virol and milk.” Even back then I don’t think anyone remembered what Virol was.
Thanks for putting me right on forum policy, Graham.
So it’s down to me to move the conversation back on track.
Latest news is that the local police have said that this was a “freak accident” and they are closing the case. But the solicitor for the family wants further investigation and I think he is right to ask for this.
It is well known that people pay more attention to the answers they want to hear. That is why scientists have peer review, so that their techniques and interpretation of the results are subject to rigorous, impartial examination.
In this case, we are looking at a tourism business that has already taken a hit as a result of UK austerity, not to mention the Thomas Cook failure and facing further problems as a result of Brexit. The local community depends heavily on them to provide jobs and bring in tourists with money to spend. So the local police aren’t going to want to find anything wrong, they have friends and neighbors just like ordinary people. As for the local swimming pool expert, if he finds any fault with the equipment, however right he might be, he shouldn’t expect to find much work in that area in future.
I am not making any accusation, But I don’t think we have had a satisfactory explanation. An independent investigation, preferably by UK police, could well uncover further evidence, especially as we know that there were two witnesses who have returned to the UK without having been interviewed by the Spanish police.
So basically the whole thing is a cover-up with the pool expert, the hotel and the police all in this together.
Is it not just possible that none of the victims could swim properly and this was the real cause of the tragedy?
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Didn’t say that. But it is a human failing to only see the evidence that we expect to find. A common example is the sailor arriving in the wrong harbour. It has been a long day and he is looking forward to a hot meal and a couple of jars. He is looking out for buoys and lights and landmarks that confirm that he is arriving at his intended destination. He will find some, maybe not exactly where he expected them to be, but it is an old chart and things change. He doesn’t see the marks that would show that he is in the wrong place because he is not expecting them to be there. It is only when he ends up on a sandbank that shouldn’t be there, that he is forced to concede that his navigation might have been at fault.
“Freak accident” explains nothing. What did the UK witnesses see? Have they looked for anyone who can testify as to the level of swimming proficiency of the victims? Saying they couldn’t swim is just speculation. Accidents don’t just happen, there is always a reason. And this is such an extraordinary event that it deserves further investigation.
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I admit that your admirably forensic and well-informed conjecture stacks up very well, Mike.
My own musings were more at a tangent to the whole dreadful event. I daresay that the Diya family, or what remains of it, have to think of their future which will be precarious now the Pastor has gone to his reward. There will no doubt be many contenders for his place in the pulpit now he’s gone…
Wow, Graham, that’s a stretch, in my opinion. Being American, I know we are perceived (and rightly so) as a litigious society, but I believe it was one of the children who died who was the American citizen. Having lived in Europe for 20 years as the wife of a Briton, I believe your own society has moved closer to a litigious culture than any other “European” country. In any case, suing someone is, I imagine, the least of that poor Mom’s worries. Try picturing your family dying in front of you, and perhaps your kinder side will emerge.
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Don’t worry about it, Katherine. We like to pretend that other countries are worse than ours, especially at difficult moments in our history. 
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This is, I think, a very telling point in this sorry story.
There may be some of you who have been privy to the reaction of near family members to grievous and unexpected loss.
It is an overwhelming grief that blots out any motivation for action, and IMO beginning legal proceedings to sue for damages is a vanishingly small concern until much later in the grieving process.
Unless those closest to the deceased are persuaded by others, perhaps those with a strong interest in the financial outcomes of suing, who have taken advantage of the mother’s helplessness to stake a claim.
I have no legal training, but common sense suggests that this latter point could figure strongly and even convincingly in the case for the defence.
I’m not being unkind, just realistic.
Interesting new insight, but nothing proved yet -
I’m reminded (though it was over 70 years ago) that the huge municipal swimming pool we visited in a suburb of Birmingham (Northfield) was ‘refreshed’ by water pumped in horizontally below the surface of the pool and drained out via a gutter that ran the full circumference of the pool at its surface, with regular perforated drainage points along its length.
The smooth tiled gutters were very handy for getting out of the pool, and for learning to float and kick. They gave a sense of security to the timid who wanted to to move cautiously ‘out of their depth’.
I don’t recall any drainage at the bottom of the pool, but my memory may be faulty.
Yes, I also remember swimming in a pool like that, but don’t remember its location. But I suspect there must have been a drain at the bottom, if only to facilitate complete emptying when the water needed to be changed.
I have recently taken a close interest in the arrangement in my local pool and was reassured to find that there were two drains separated by more than 2 metres. Both are covered by stainless steel grids that would not allow anything wider than a pencil to pass through.
When you think about it, it becomes clear why two drains are necessary. If you block one drain with your body, the pump will continue to extract water through the other one, so you would not experience the full force of the pump holding you down.
I hadn’t considered the possibility of a single drain creating a vortex, but I imagine that could happen and it might only need a small movement in the water to trigger that - similar to the mini-maelstrom that can often occur when a bath is emptied.
The 16° water temperature is similar to that experienced by Channel swimmers, not comfortable, but not cold enough to kill a normally healthy person in a few minutes.
Virol, to my recollection, was a sticky syrupy concoction of cod liver oil and barley malt.
It was a proprietary version of the same stuff supplied in a brown glass jar by the Ministry of Health & Welfare during the war. A spoonful a day of Cod Liver Oil and Malt was doled out to me a my brother daily by my mother “to keep colds and chills away”.
It tasted quite nice, the malt disguised the fish-oil taste, which wasn’t.
We also had concentrated orange juice in small glass bottles, imported at great personal risk by convoys of merchant ships.
Thanks to their sacrifice we are the healthiest generation that has ever lived and will (hopefully) continue to be a burden on the UK Pension Service for many years to come.
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Yaaaaayyyyyy! You said it, we’ll live it Mike! 
And here’s to the blessed memory of those merchant seamen who served the Atlantic and other convoys!
They should design the pumps so that if the suction “pressure” goes over a certain limit, the pump turns itself off.
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They could, but the profit motive usually means that you get the cheapest kit that will do the job. Like the Grenfell Tower refurbishment.
Something like they already have on surpressurs, perhaps, with an automatic pressure switch - 6 euro at manomano.