An American man has drowned whilst proposing to his girlfriend during a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip in Tanzania.
Steven Weber and his girlfriend Kenesha Antoine were three days into their stay in a luxury underwater cabin at the Manta Resort, which lies approximately 250m from the shore of Pemba island.
A video posted to Antoine’s Facebook page shows Weber smiling and pressing a handwritten note to the glass wall of the cabin during the proposal, which took place on Thursday.
It read: “I can’t hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you. But… everything I love about you, I love more every day!”
Weber can be seen flipping the piece of paper later in the video to reveal the proposal, before pulling an engagement ring from his shorts and swimming out of the shot.
Tragically, Weber failed to surface following the romantic gesture, and was later found drowned.
In her Facebook post, Antoine wrote: “You never emerged from those depths, so you never got to hear my answer, ‘Yes! Yes! A million times, yes, I will marry you!’
“We never got to embrace and celebrate the beginning of the rest of our lives together, as the best day of our lives turned into the worst, in the cruelest twist of fate imaginable.”
She described finding “solace” in knowing that the couple had “enjoyed the most amazing bucket list experiences” in the days leading up to the incident, and said: “I will find you and marry you in the next lifetime, and the next, and the next, and the next... I love you so much, and I always will.”
The couple had booked a four night’s stay in the resort’s underwater room, which is anchored around 10m underwater and costs £1,300 a night.
The Manta Resort told the BBC that Weber had “tragically drowned while free diving alone outside the underwater room.”
In a statement they said: “It is with the deepest regret that we inform that a fatal accident occurred at The Manta Resort on Thursday 19 September, 2019.”
The US Department of State also said it had been made aware of the death of a US citizen in Tanzania, and offered condolences and consular assistance to the family.