Michaela and Joseph Danso [Joseph Danso]

THE family of a prominent barrister who died while using a jet ski on her honeymoon wants answers from the water sports company over the tragic circumstances of her death.

Hundreds of people gathered at Our Lady of Hal Church in Arlington Road, Camden Town, for Michaela Danso’s funeral on Friday. The 46-year-old was killed near Dubai on Christmas Day.

Her husband Joseph is now seeking “an international lawyer” to take on his wife’s case, and wants the training of staff and security protocols to be investigated.

The couple were popular members of the congregation at the church and had married in 2018. They booked a holiday to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a belated honeymoon and Mr Danso said his wife had been “excited” about the holiday and “counted the weeks and days” until they left London.

They checked into their hotel in Sharjah, a city close to Dubai, but on the third day of their 10-day holiday, tragedy struck after they hired jet skis.

“[The instructor] just told us: this is the button for starting, and that was the brake. That was it,” Mr Danso said.

“They said the one she had was very powerful, which meant she could enjoy it because it had more horsepower. But given that neither of us had any experience with jet skis, I believe that contributed to the accident. I expect my wife just grabbed the accelerator.”

Ms Danso quickly lost control of the vehicle and, still in a port area, crashed into a wall. Her husband said she landed on a concrete platform and “died instantly”.

Mr Danso said: “An experienced instructor would have taken you out and made sure you understood the machine before you could go out alone. This was an avoidable death.”

Aquablue, the company, deny any wrong-doing and said an instructor carefully went through how to use the jet skis.

Speaking at his wife’s funeral, Mr Danso said: “It has been the hardest eight weeks of my life. It is hard to accept the death of a loved one, especially when you did not have the chance to say goodbye, especially when the deceased was taken so suddenly and so shockingly at the prime of her life.”

News of Ms Danso’s death has been met with an outpouring of grief from all who knew her.

Michaela Danso

She was a barrister with Charterhouse Chambers in Chancery Lane, and had practised in employment, criminal and family law over her long career.

“Black barristers are not easy to come by. Barristers are not easy to come by in general because of their training – what they have to endure. Quite often it’s based on the old boy network: who you know, your parents’ background,” Ms Danso’s sister Julie Adams told the New Journal.

“We’ve managed to get a few people of colour in this field. And to lose one so prominent, talented, skilful and experienced – it’s a huge loss.

“She would open doors for others, she was that kind of character. She was a real advocate and inspiration.”

Ms Danso always offered free legal advice to those who were struggling, her sister said, adding: “It wasn’t a case where it was always about the money for her.”

Ms Danso was a talented singer, dancer and “people person”, her sister said, adding: “She had time for people, she was always interested in people’s culture, people’s background.”

At school she was followed by “an entourage of people from all walks of life”, Ms Adams said.

“She took time to learn about people’s languages,” she added. “A couple of weeks before Christmas, we went to a Turkish shop and she was talking to the man in Turkish. She always took time to greet people, and would learn to communicate with them.”

Ms Adams is now also demanding answers about her sister’s death. “

We just don’t know about the safety – do they check these jet skis?” she said. “Are they having regular checks, was there something wrong with them? Had they altered them in any particular way? You just don’t know all the facts. I walk around every day and say, ‘Why’? And I’m never going to get the answer.”

Sharjah is popular with tourists [Mueed Ahmed]

In a message to the New Journal, a member of staff at Aquablue said: “We have customers every day who have never done a jet ski and the rules and instructions are the same for everyone. It always goes very well. I did ask them several times if they had understood correctly and they repeated that they had.

“This is the first time that this has happened… we are still in shock and are sorry for the tragic death of this lady.”

He said that instructors got on the jet ski with customers when they asked, but claimed the couple had “clearly told us that they had understood the rules of operation. We told them to just start the jet ski without accelerating and follow the instructor to the exit of the port.”

The message added: “We do everything to satisfy our customers so that they leave with good memories. We still don’t understand how this happened.”