That is almost certainly a very complicated issue which has a lot to do with where the person died, your country of origin and so on. In this case however the guy lied about the timeline and events, which speaks to something other than death of natural causes.

Also worth mentioning is that the police were very quickly charging him with manslaughter - so quick, they probably had indications something was wrong with his statement even before the sub was raised.

Educated guess - there's cell phone coverage in most, if not all of Køge bay; it wouldn't surprise me if she managed to call the emergency services.

> it wouldn't surprise me if she managed to call the emergency services.

Not from within the metal hull of a partially submerged submarine.

I work offshore on occasion; when in areas with excellent coverage, you'll often have (spotty) coverage on decks below the waterline - the signal bounces off any reflective (to RF energy) surface and finds its way into lots of nooks and crannies where you wouldn't expect to have reception.

Typically such zones are small and prone to interference, if you move just a little bit your coverage could disappear and reappear. The same happens in the 'urban canyon' of big cities between the high rises.

Even so, the default is that if you're in a hull you should not expect to be able to get out, and a submarine especially has a nearly cylindrical hull with only a very small hatch up top and this particular one has a few windows.

Sure, but a submerged sub shouldn't have any nooks and crannies that leads to the surface.

True, but a submarine does not necessarily travel submerged.

> Also worth mentioning is that the police were very quickly charging him with manslaughter - so quick, they probably had indications something was wrong with his statement even before the sub was raised.

From the linked article:

> Mr. Madsen’s new account was only disclosed on Monday, with the approval of both the prosecution and the defense, although he had given it in court, behind closed doors, on Aug. 12

Sounds to me that his statement was exactly the reason he was charged with manslaughter.

It's going to vary depending on circumstances. If you are engaging in an activity where this is a realistic possibility, there should be a discussion about it. I recently sailed a boat from Los Angeles to Hawaii, and while the trip isn't especially dangerous you are far from emergency medical care. One of the guys did tell me that he would want to be buried at sea. The alternatives are not great if you are far from shore, how long does unrefrigerated meat last in the tropics? Some hikes and climbs it might be realistic to bring the person back, other times you might need to plan a return trip.

So you take pictures. You document the circumstances. You contact the next of kin. These are all the behaviors of an accidental death at sea.

But - Oops. I forgot. She died for some reason and I threw her overboard I hope doesn't cut the mustard.

Oh, definitely, you'd document it if that was possible. And I'm not saying this guy's story makes any sense. You might do a burial at sea on a 10-day voyage on the open ocean, there's no legitimate reason to do it on an afternoon cruise out of a major city.

Well, the moral obligations are simple: if you can bring someone back you probably should. And if you can't the fall back position is that you carefully mark where you left the body behind so it can be retrieved at a later date and that you make it your priority to notify the next-of-kin and the authorities truthfully about what happened.

And if you're within radioing/cell phone distance of help that you ask for that help.

If you're 3 hours away from the shore and you're most likely purposefully that far out just because you want to dump the body of someone you killed in deep water then of course none of the above applies to you.

I imagine it'll be heavily context dependent. If you're a day out from contact at sea, bringing it back is viable, whereas if you're half-way up K2 that's a far different proposition.

I think whether or not you are placing your own life in risk (or believe to the best of your knowledge this to be the case) by recovering the body is the determining factor.