Diver Missing, Lake Pleasant, Phoenix AZ Mar 13, 2014

[aikidude]

IIRC the diver who was lost in 2010 was one of five divers. I want to say that four of the divers were very experienced but the victim was not. They were also diving the dam at a time of year when the visibility in the lake was pretty bad, October I think. Visibility at the lake can be less than 15' down to a few feet. The search was so difficult that the Sheriff's UAV actually became entangled and almost lost.

A correction to your account Tom, he was one of 4 divers on that particular dive, and during the portion of the dive where the incident occurred (practicing a reciprocal course navigation exercise on the top of the old dam), he was one of 3.

 

[Bob DBF]

Quite simply - safety of the recovery team. :diver: As with any rescue/recovery mission, safety of the rescuer is the number
one priority. No sense having a rescuer become part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

How many "dive rescue teams" have the training, equipment, and ability to dive to that depth and bring a deceased diver up.

Certainty not the Sheriffs dive team for our area. Remains were found in the lake at 90', an ROV was brought in and documented the find and a dive was made to mark it and place an anchor. An FBI team on rebreathers came in later to make the recovery.

I would say most public service dive teams are trained and used for shallow water rescue and recovery, around here in the river, creeks, ponds and possibly the ocean shore. Just having to recover and collect forensics from a possible crime scene at 90 feet would be considerable deco and not the diving they are trained for, or used to doing.



Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[oc in az]

Does anybody know if there has been a recovery yet?

 

[N2DeepInAz]

Does anybody know if there has been a recovery yet?

To my knowledge from local LEOs that I know who were attached to the incident, the recovery of the rebreather diver was completed last Friday using the ROV. He was recovered in 248' of water which is accessible by diver but would require a tremendous amount of support effort to put divers in the water for such a deep recovery. The ROV was the safest and easiest option.

 

[oc in az]

Thanks for the reply. Good job local LEOs and ROV team. Hopefully his recovery will provide some closure to friends and family. Do you know if it was MCSO? They are the only LEO dive team I'm aware of locally.


Thanks

 

[N2DeepInAz]

For those of you not familiar with Lake Pleasant:

It's fed by mountain run-off, so is very cold except the first few feet from the surface.

Due to the constant sunlight, there is a lot of particulate. It tends to cause layers when there hasn't been much rain/meltoff lately.

It gets dark quickly - like at 40'. You can drop down and suddenly be in dark that is worse than any silt-out, because there are seldom margins.

Here is an excellent write-up about it: Submerged Old Waddell Dam

They built the new, higher dam downstream, then sliced up the old dam. They placed charges in the slices, and blew out sections. Lots of jumbled concrete and rebar to become entangled upon. Add that it is normally darker than one can imagine, and that even the brightest Halogen can't 'see' but 3-4 feet normally, and there's a good reason to use an ROV.

Actually it has very little to do with run off and almost nothing to do with being mountain fed, which is a serious stretch. LOL

Lake Pleasant is part of the Central Arizona Project's water system and water is pumped via the CAP canals starting around Lake Havasu and down into the lake. The man made reservoir is used to hold water which is used annually to feed the crops in south Phoenix via the canal system. So there's almost contant pumping in and out throughout the year. The only run off into the lake would be when it rains here which is almost never.

 

[diversteve]

Actually it has very little to do with run off and almost nothing to do with being mountain fed, which is a serious stretch. LOL

Actually, technically it is:

Between 85 and 90 percent of the Colorado River's discharge originates in snowmelt, mostly from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.

Colorado River - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Central Arizona Project is a 336 mi diversion canal in Arizona in the United States. The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River from Lake Havasu City near Parker into central and southern Arizona.

Central Arizona Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[N2DeepInAz]

Actually, technically it is: Colorado River - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central Arizona Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's splitting hairs Steve. The hard fact is that most all of the water is pumped into and out of the lake. Without the aquaduct pumping water from Lake Havasu to Lake Pleasant, Lake Pleasant would likely be significantly smaller or maybe not exist at all as the Agua Fria River doesn't flow unless it rains, hence it being man made. Let's not skew the facts for people who aren't on the lake every weekend like most of us.

 

[Laurie S.]

I worked on the archaeological survey back about 1979 when the lake size was increased. We had to take a small putt putt row boat out to the different spots around the lake to look at the new areas that would be submerged. Between the mosquitoes and the idiots who tried to swamp our boat it was an awful experience and we dubbed it Lake Unpleasant. I still think of it that way.

 

[Bopper]

Certainty not the Sheriffs dive team for our area. Remains were found in the lake at 90', an ROV was brought in and documented the find and a dive was made to mark it and place an anchor. An FBI team on rebreathers came in later to make the recovery.

I would say most public service dive teams are trained and used for shallow water rescue and recovery, around here in the river, creeks, ponds and possibly the ocean shore. Just having to recover and collect forensics from a possible crime scene at 90 feet would be considerable deco and not the diving they are trained for, or used to doing.

Wow, an FBI team? Wouldn't that indicate that this was not an ordinary recovery operation? Seems like if the FBI is involved that this particular incident was taken to a whole new level.