Advanced scuba diver Jayne Bloom is believed to have suffered a fatal attack of "the bends" while exploring Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, which is popular with sub-aqua enthusiasts because of the huge number of submerged wartime wrecks, which have been transformed into stunning artificial reefs.

Jayne, aged 38, and her fiancé, also an experienced diver, travelled to the Pacific islands of Micronesia last month but she suffered an unexplained accident three days after they arrived, a Doncaster inquest heard.

They had arranged to be married there on July 5, a few days after the accident. Jayne had made a public proposal of marriage on stage at a diving show in Birmingham last year

Fred Curtis, Deputy Coroner for Doncaster, is awaiting evidence to establish if she rose to the surface too quickly or spent too long underwater and suffered oxygen starvation. A computer she wore on her wrist during the dive may provide vital clues to what went wrong.

In an interview before the inquest opened, her fiancé, Jeffrey Keep, of Reddish, near Stockport, who is a diving instructor and runs New Frontier Diving in Manchester, said they had descended to 50m to examine a wreck on June 29.

He added Jayne showed no signs of stress or anything unusual before climbing back onto their dive boat.

Then Jayne weakened, said she had lost her sight, and lost consciousness despite being given oxygen. She was given immediate first aid by a doctor in the diving party.

Mr Keep said: "When I climbed on board I asked Jayne if she was okay and she said she was fine and what a great dive. A minute later she reported she had lost her sight, she then started to go very weak."

In evidence he described Jayne, an IT consultant, as "very experienced".

He said they arrived on the island of Chuuk, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, on June 27.

Mr Keep told the inquest she had "a serious problem" while on a dive and was treated in a local hospital before she was transferred to another location to spend time in a hyperbaric pressurised chamber, which is used to treat divers suffering from the "bends". She was then taken to hospital ready to be evacuated by air ambulance to Australia but died in hospital before she could be moved.

Her body was taken to Brisbane before being repatriated to the UK for her parents to arrange her funeral.

Divers who examined her equipment afterwards are said to have found nothing wrong with it but have submitted a full report for the inquest.

Her mother, Margaret Bloom, of Ridgewood Avenue, Edenthorpe, last saw Jayne a week before she went on holiday.

She said: "She had been interested in diving for some time, she took it up about seven or eight years ago.

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