The water was choppy and the wind was blowing the morning of Jan. 5 when an excited 13-year-old boy from Mongolia put on scuba equipment for the first time and ended up dead in 60 feet of water in Maunalua Bay.

“From all of the witnesses we interviewed, there was very limited visibility — between 5 and 10 feet,” said Honolulu attorney Michael Livingston. “Some of the people we talked to said there was a significant current and that was a factor.”

Livingston said it’s premature to disclose what happened underwater to cause the death of Temuulin Tsogt during his noncertified scuba dive with Island Divers Hawaii out of the Hawaii Kai Shopping Center.

A person who answered the phone at Island Divers Hawaii on Friday said no one was around to comment. The principal of a company called Honu Group LLC that owns Island Divers Hawaii could not be reached for comment Friday.

Tsogt’s father is “a very sophisticated lawyer from Mongolia,” Livingston said. “In addition to being overwhelmed with grief, he is just angry. He feels this is a complete betrayal by the company. He wants to make sure this never happens again.”

Livingston’s law firm, Davis Levin Livingston, previously settled with Island Divers Hawaii for an undisclosed amount following the 2011 scuba death of Matthew Curley, a 28-year-old doctor from New York whose body was never found during a dive off of Oahu’s South Shore.

“There were a variety of claims of negligence, starting with they shouldn’t have gone out that day,” Livingston said. “In our view it was negligence by the dive operation, and his body was never found.”

Tsogt’s family — his parents and 8-year-old sister — arrived in Honolulu on Jan. 1 for a nine-day stay in Waikiki.

An activities broker sold them a package of ocean activities that included a scuba dive for noncertified divers, which are particularly popular in Hawaii.

“They thought, ‘Oh, this is another fun water activity we can do,’” Livingston said. “They were assured it was safe and appropriate for the boy, so they signed up. He was extremely excited. But they had no comprehension of the risks associated with the sport.”

Tsogt “had very little experience in water sports generally and certainly none in the open ocean,” Livingston said. “He had never used snorkels or fins before.”

Different dive organizations have different standards for taking noncertified divers underwater, such as the proper depth limits and ratio of divers to instructor. Livingston is still working to determine the organization that trained Tsogt’s dive instructor.

Along with the weather and water conditions, Livingston said there may have been confusion on the Island Divers Hawaii boat as it headed out into Maunalua Bay.

There were two groups on board: Tsogt was part of a group of four noncertified divers dominated by people from Japan. All of the instructions and printed dive materials were in Japanese, a language that Tsogt did not speak, Livingston said.

A much larger group of six or seven customers included mostly experienced certified divers and one who was not certified, Livingston said.

Tsogt’s father, who speaks English, snorkeled a bit but did not go on the scuba dive.

Tsogt’s group “got in the water,” Livingston said. “The father saw his son at the surface of the water. Then the son dove and he didn’t see him again. What went on under the water at this point is probably not appropriate for me to get into at the time.”

Tsogt was reported missing at about 11:45 a.m.

Honolulu Ocean Safety lifeguards found him unresponsive about 60 feet underwater and brought him to shore at Maunalua Bay Beach Park.

Honolulu firefighters performed CPR until an ambulance arrived and took him in critical condition to a hospital, where he died.

Preliminary tests on Tsogt’s scuba equipment showed that there was “substantial air in the tank,” Livingston said.

Tsogt’s family returned to Mongolia on Wednesday as planned, but his body did not get sent home for another day.

“They were tormented by that,” Livingston said.