Boat Tour leaves snorkeler U.S. on the coral reefs of Australia (AP)

SYDNEY – Australian officials said Wednesday they were investigating a diving boat that accidentally left behind a U.S. tourist snorkeling on the great barrier reef, forcing the man panics to swim for another boat for help.

A company spokesman denied that Ian Cole was never in danger. But it drew immediate comparisons to the infamous case of American Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who died in 1998 after their boat tour on the left while diving on the reef. Officials believe they drowned or were eaten by sharks.

Cole, 28, of Michigan, said he was snorkeling on Saturday, when he lifted his head from the water and realized his boat tour, the passions of paradise, was nowhere in sight.

"The adrenaline shot and I had a moment of panic, which was the worst thing I could do at that point," Cole told the Cairns Post. "I was able to calm me just a little bit because there was another boat still out there and I made my way to ship. Lucky that I was there because otherwise I could have drowned. Didn't handle it well and I was tired. "

A spokesman for the State Security Agency work, workplace health and safety Queensland, confirmed the Department was investigating, but refused to comment further.

Passions of paradise referred calls to the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators delegate With McKenzie, who did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press. But he said that the Post that Cole was never in danger of drowning, since other boats were nearby.

A member of staff who led a head count on board the boat broke the rules by failing to obtain the signature of Cole to confirm who was on board before he left, McKenzie said. The staffer was fired.

Father of Cole, Jim Cole, said her son grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan, but he lives and works in Australia for about a year and plans to return to the United States on 4 July.

"Everyone said, ' you've got to see the great barrier reef '," said Jim Cole. "He was always a small tour before he returned home."

Attempts to reach Ian Cole to numbers given by father were unsuccessful.

Safety regulations for operators of recreational boat dive on the reef were strengthened after the Lonergans were abandoned in 1998. Their case inspired the 2003 film "Open Water".

Still, a handful of tourists reef are found drifting since then. In 2008, a British diver and his American girlfriend was lost when resurfaced from a dive on the reef and found themselves far from their boat dive. A helicopter rescued them after they have spent 19 hours in the ocean.

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Associated Press writer Jeff Karoub in Detroit contributed to this report.

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