(6/20/05) Diver missing in Stonington, CT?

[shellbird]

Coast Guard searching for missing diver

(WTNH, June 20, 2005 Updated 1:05 PM) _ The search is on this afternoon for a missing female diver who was on board a 30 ft. pleasure boat.

The U.S. Coast Guard and a dive team is searching an area between Fisher's and Ram Islands. They have been searching the area since noon.

Coast Guard said that someone saw the female diver surface then go back under.

No other details are available at this time.

 

[Estela216]

I heard a couple stories about a female diver missing in Stonington, CT. Can anyone clarify these reports? Apparently she was diving in only 15' of water.

My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family if this is true.

Kev

 

[shellbird]

Coast Guard Suspends Search For Missing Diver
Search Scheduled To Resume Tuesday

POSTED: 3:17 pm EDT June 20, 2005
UPDATED: 10:22 pm EDT June 20, 2005

STONINGTON, Conn. -- State and local dive teams suspended their search Monday night for a scuba diver missing off the Stonington-Mystic shoreline.

The diver, a 42-year-old woman, had been diving with a companion off a boat anchored near Ram Island at the mouth of the Mystic River, police said. She was last seen about noon waving from the water.

The search, which was suspended about 8 p.m., was scheduled to resume Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard was expected to stay in the area through the night.

At 11:55 a.m. Monday, the Coast Guard Group Long Island Sound received a distress call that a 44-year-old female diver was missing from a SCUBA diving expedition in the vicinity of Ram Island, Conn., approximately one-half mile south of Mystic Harbor, according to a press release from the Coast Guard.

Her boyfriend, aboard a 25-foot green and white pleasure craft, was unable to locate her and called the Coast Guard, according to the release.

To aid in the search, the Coast Guard Station New London deployed 21-foot and 25-foot rescue boats. Air Station Cape Cod launched an HH-60J helicopter.

The University of Connecticut Dive Team and some Good Samaritan vessels were also at the scene, as well as the Mystic Police Department Dive Team and Connecticut State Police.

Divers were dealing with 10-foot visibility and changing currents, NBC 30 reported.

One diver was injured during the search effort, NBC 30 reported.

 

[countryboy]

There are conflicting messages..

One says the person is 44, another time they state 42... Then it is a girlfriend, another article mentions wife...

My thoughts and prayers go out to this person.. We are making the calls and checking on our friends as many dive in this area.

 

[countryboy]

There is another thread in the New England Lobstah Divers section...

Here is the latest from the news (WTNH):

(Stonington-WTNH, June 21, 2005 Updated 6:40 AM) _ Search teams including a state police dive team are back looking for a diver who went missing off the coast of Stonington.

A 44-year-old woman was last seen around Noon yesterday while on a scuba expedition near Ram Island, about a half mile south of Mystic Harbor.

According to the Coast Guard the man said he saw his wife waving through the water. She then went down and has not been seen since.

He called authorities from the dive boat.

Coast Guard divers and a helicopter aided other dive teams in the search yesterday.

 

[shellbird]

Yeah, I noticed they are having a problem getting the facts. I too wonder if I might know these people. I have no idea where they are from and details are not being released... so sad.

There are conflicting messages..

One says the person is 44, another time they state 42... Then it is a girlfriend, another article mentions wife...

My thoughts and prayers go out to this person.. We are making the calls and checking on our friends as many dive in this area.

 

[countryboy]

Latest update:

(Stonington-WTNH, June 21, 2005 Updated 9:50 AM) _ Search teams including a state police dive team are back looking for a diver who went missing off the coast of Stonington.

Forty-four-year-old Sandra Dagata of Preston was last seen around Noon yesterday while on a scuba expedition near Ram Island, about a half mile south of Mystic Harbor.

According to the Coast Guard the man said he saw his dive partner waving through the water. She then went down and has not been seen since.

He called authorities from the dive boat.

Coast Guard divers and a helicopter aided other dive teams in the search yesterday.

 

[michaelp68]

The missing diver has still not been found and the search/recovery has been suspended.

This is very sad.

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-missingdiver0621,0,5778758.story?coll=hc-big-headlines-breaking

Michael

 

[mrobinson]

Thanks for info. My heart goes out to her family.

 

[shellbird]

Such a tragedy -

Coast Guard, State Call Off Search For Diver
Woman Vanished Off Ram Island
June 22, 2005
By JESSE HAMILTON, Courant Staff Writer MYSTIC -- The Coast Guard and state agencies have given up the search for a Preston woman missing since Monday while scuba diving in the waters off Mystic.

Sandra Dagata, 44, went diving with her boyfriend, from a boat in the shallow waters off Ram Island, a fishhook-shaped island in Fishers Island Sound. The U.S. Coast Guard received an 11:55 a.m. distress call and started searching with state and local agencies.


The Coast Guard searched a wide area with three HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter flights totaling 12 hours. Three rescue boats from the Coast Guard station in New London scoured the area.

Law enforcement agencies contributed dive teams. Connecticut State Police Sgt. J. Paul Vance said state divers were out in their boats, using sonar in "searching the area for recovery" of Dagata. The state police considered the matter a "swimming accident," and out of their jurisdiction for investigation.

By 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the Coast Guard called off its search.

"We saturated the area with our resources," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Lisa Hennings, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Boston. After a "certain amount of time" passes, she said, "someone's got to make the call that we've done everything we can."

She said scuba accidents are infrequent in the region. "I don't remember the last time we had a missing-diver case."

A Department of Environmental Protection spokesman called it "very unusual." There are boating fatalities every year, but diving accidents are rare, he said.

The Connecticut shoreline isn't a celebrated diving spot. Sharon Teel, owner of Seaview Scuba in nearby New London, said the underwater visibility is usually about 15 feet.

And the current 60-degree temperatures require a thick wetsuit or a more protective dry suit.

"We want to dive, so we just dive where we are," she said. "We just look at things and maybe do some lobster and spear fishing."

The details of what happened to Dagata were still unclear Tuesday. Stonington police are looking into the incident. "She's still missing, and we're still searching," an officer there said.