A FORMER Royal Navy diver from Portland suffered an epileptic fit and died after his state-of-the-art equipment pumped a lethal amount of oxygen into his body, an inquest heard.

West Dorset Coroner Michael Johnston has warned divers they should be "very wary" of using the Buddy Inspirational re-breather after hearing that faults in the computerised diving kit had caused the deaths of 14 people.

Other divers told the court that one in 100 Buddy Inspirational re-breathers - which help people dive for longer with reduced decompression time - had caused death and that "everyone" using the apparatus had reported having problems.

The inquest into the death of 41-year-old Ian Alfred Swift, of Church Ope Road, who was one of the first 20 people in the world to own the kit, heard that he was one of 10 divers who had sailed on the boat Skin Deep to dive on the wreck of the Empress of India.

But the sea was so rough that skipper Ian Taylor decided to change course and dive on the Salsette, ten miles off Portland.

On the trip to the wreck on June 13, 2000, Mr Swift complained that the alarm was going off on his kit, but he banged it on the rail of the boat, complaining that the battery connections were faulty, and the alarm stopped. When he and his diving buddy Karl Harmsworth were ready to dive he had said that the carbon dioxide levels were "perfect".

Retired market policeman Mr Swift and his buddy dived first and went down 48 metres, swimming apart as they explored the wreck. Mr Harmsworth came to the engine room and wanted to explore, so he motioned to Mr Swift, who had experience of the engine room, to come over.

But as Mr Swift swam towards him he suddenly dropped to his knees and started bringing part of his kit over his head. He switched to his conventional mixed gas apparatus, by which time Mr Harmsworth was with him, ready to take him to the surface.

Mr Harmsworth had his arm around Mr Swift, trying to get his own regulator into Mr Swift's mouth when he started convulsing.

He said: "I thought when he took the mixed gas after the air of the re-breather that he was going to be narked out of his head so I went over to bring him up according to diving procedure.

"But then he started convulsing. I had inflated his gear, but I had exhausted myself getting him that far, I was more buoyant than him and the silt was clouding up the water. I had to release him."

Mr Harmsworth went back down to find Mr Swift, but he had risen to the surface, where Mr Taylor raised the alarm and pulled him on board.

Mr Taylor, who said that Mr Swift was one of the few divers who carried out thorough pre-dive checks, carried out resuscitation until the helicopter arrived to take Mr Swift to Dorset County Hospital, but he was declared dead on arrival.

Mr Swift's partner Melanie Schofield said: "Diving was Ian's life - he would often dive several times a week.

"When he got the Buddy Inspirational he undertook specialist training to use it. But every other month he would have to take it back to the manufacturer, AP Valves, with faults.

"Ian wouldn't dive if he knew there was a fault in his kit."

Coroner Michael Johnston said that the Buddy Inspira-tional recycles air, taking out carbon dioxide from the outward breath and automatically calculating how much oxygen the diver needs.

He said: "I believe that Mr Swift's death was due to the re-breather malfunctioning, whether he should have or could have known it was faulty or not.

"I am going to record a verdict of accidental death, but I have to say that I think the diving community should look very carefully at any piece of equipment which has a possible one per cent fatality rate."