Scuba Diver Dies at Lake

1547 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Just J, Aug 19, 2009

Dropshotpilot

Discussion Starter · Aug 17, 2009

Anyone else hear about this? I wonder what happened?

PEORIA - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says a man has died while scuba diving at Lake Pleasant.
It happened about 9:15 a.m. Sunday in a picnic area called Desert Tortoise.
The man had plenty of air in the scuba tank and was not in deep water. Authorities are calling the cause of death unknown -- they're not calling it a drowning.
MCSO is trying to determine whether or not a medical condition led to his death.
The victim had somehow got separated from the rest of his group. His identity has not been released.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/nw_valley/scuba_diver_dies_08_16_2009

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Striper Mike

· #2 · Aug 19, 2009

They updated the story.

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had not heard of that incident? there has been pontoon boat loads of people out scuba diving on the weekdays around the islands out in the middle of the lake and last week there was a boat beached in a cove and I looked and there is a float with a small flag on it moving across the cove????? then I saw the bubbles coming up and someone was scuba diving but was inside the no wake buoys in the cove.

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Striper Mike

· #4 · Aug 19, 2009

Ah heck. That was an old story I looked at. The one from May where the kid was cliff diving. Didn't hear about the scuba diver. I see them all the time in Spring Canyon cove near the four lane ramp and sometimes out in the middle around some island. Too bad. I wonder what happened to him.

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RENEGADE

· #5 · Aug 19, 2009

DANGER

that is a sad story and i would never want anyone to end up like that but you have got to be a bit touched in the head to even think about scuba diving at pleasant...with the only thing to identify your under the water is a "marker"??i would bet that around 80% of the people operating water craft there could not tell you what just one nav. buoy means if they ran over it first and went back to look at it!!! how about it? what does the one with the black vertical stripe mean? don't look it up...it's scary for sure just to be "on" the water.

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BPRescue

· #6 · Aug 19, 2009

It would be interesting to know how many dives he took this day/the day before, what his certification level was, etc. Also when you get separated from your group, you search for one minute once you realize they are gone then surface (everyone). So, how long was he separated before anyone noticed?

Also, what does air in the SCUBA tank mean? So, he had air, but were his regs working or did they fail? If this is not being called a drowning, he must not have water in his lungs which would be odd. At the same time he was shallow, if he was out of air it was an easy ascent. Also could be bad air in the tank; so many possibilities and not necessarily some medical condition.

As for diving in Pleasant and safety; divers are required to have a dive flag up and boats need to stay 100 yards away. Typically when you dive, you navigate as to ascend in the same place you descended, which is right next to the boat; even using an anchor line or such. So, unless there is a problem; the diver would typically be deep enough as not to be impacted by other traffic. At the same time, freshwater was never my thing; there is absolutely no life, visibility is horrid, etc.

Quite sad…

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