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.
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.
