Here's another story of a similar vein, last spring.
BY ANN HENSON, Staff Writer
Posted-Friday, May 6, 2005 1:09 PM EDT Email this story
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Could a change in protocol have saved a scuba diver who died last weekend while diving the Spiegel Grove?
A team investigating the incident may answer this and other questions surrounding the death.
But one fact is clear - no one was underwater looking for the victim until two hours after the call for help was made.
<name removed>, 44, of Indiatlantic, died as he was diving the Spiegel Grove on Saturday, April 30.
According to Islamorada Coast Guard Commander Dennis Zecca, the Coast Guard followed protocol after getting the call at about 2:50 p.m.
"We launched our rescue boat within five minutes of the call," he said.
"We had aircraft in the area and they were on scene within six minutes."
He said the state Fish and Wildlife Commission was notified and arrived eight minutes after the call.
"We are the surface rescue," Zecca said. "We don't do underwater rescue."
The county was also notified, but the Monroe County Sheriff's Office was unable to provide air support or a dive team.
The head of the dive team was out kayaking on his day off.
"Two hours went by and a follow-up call was made to the county," but this time to conduct an underwater search for a body, Zecca said.
Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said both of the sheriff's helicopters were down that day, but she didn't know why.
"The dive team was in the process of assembling when the Key Largo team responded," she said.
"We are not a rapid-response team, like Key Largo Fire Rescue," she said.
"We'll do it if we can and on occasion we can help. Primarily, we are a search-and-recovery team."
The Coast Guard official called Chief Sergio Garcia of the Key Largo Volunteer Department at 5 p.m.
Garcia said his team made it to the Spiegel Grove in 19 minutes.
"They found the diver in deep water at 6:08 p.m." he said, about three hours after the initial call.
Garcia said he didn't know if the diver could have been saved if the Key Largo crew was called initially.
"We won't know that until the autopsy report is back," he said.
"If he had a heart attack and went down," he most likely could not have been saved, he said.
"But we don't know when he went down and for how long."
Dr. Michael Hunter, Monroe County Medical Examiner, said the cause of death was drowning and the victim died very soon after he went down because he was still wearing a weight belt.
However, a final answer through extensive toxicology and other testing will take weeks.
Rob Bleser, who heads the Key Largo dive team, was at his dive shop when Garcia notified him.
Bleser said that for this type of search, a technical diver is needed, especially if the lost diver was still inside the ship.
Two of Bleser's instructors have technical diving certificates and are working on becoming members of the dive team.
"I just took the two guys who were certified to do this," he said.
Other divers in the area were gearing up to head out to the Spiegel Grove, but Bleser's team found the diver nearly immediately upon entering the water.
"They did a superb job," Bleser said. "We are satisfied that we could bring this to closure rather than extending the search to the next day."
Zecca said that waves that day ranged 4-7 feet and the current was running very fast.
"Only experienced divers should be out under those conditions," he said.
According to police reports,
the victim was diving off of It's A Dive.
He surfaced at the wrong mooring ball and signaled to dive captain Jason Hill that he was in trouble.
"Hill advised the victim to stay put until the other divers were on the boat," the report stated.
However,
the victim was pulled off the mooring ball by the current and began to swim for the boat.
Hill's boat left its mooring to find the victim, but could not locate him and immediately called the Coast Guard.
Company officials said they are not making statements due to an ongoing investigation.
Zecca and Herrin, of the Sheriff's Office, said a meeting of all agencies to discuss procedures would be held.
Zecca said he plans to add to Coast Guard protocol that the Key Largo Fire Department be notified immediately for help in future diver situations.
