Missing Diver at Lake Pleasant

[Jax]

This may be a subject for a different thread but for a recreational diver, there's not a lot to accomplish. As a technical diver, you have to keep your skills, muscle memory and procedures fresh so it is a very beneficial training environment.

Do you know if it was a group of tec divers that our missing diver was part of?

 

[IDS_Bill]

Do you know if it was a group of tec divers that our missing diver was part of?

It was not.

 

[Jax]

Damn, that has to be hard on those guys. :depressed:

 

[AZ_ROB]

Does anybody have an idea of the Certification level of the diver or experience level? Was he a solo diver?

 

[Jax]

Does anybody have an idea of the Certification level of the diver or experience level? Was he a solo diver?

No, on the cert question. The rest is in the first posts of the thread; it's not very long.

 

[Jax]

Search continues for missing diver at Lake Pleasant

by Ryan O'Donnell
azfamily.com
Posted on October 18, 2010 at 5:04 PM
Updated today at 8:09 AM {Edit: Today being Oct 19, 21010}

LAKE PLEASANT, Ariz. – Search and rescue teams continue to look for a Phoenix man who was diving in Lake Pleasant with a group on Saturday but never resurfaced.

Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies said Timothy Borger, 48, was in the Waddell Dam when he separated from the group and was not seen again.

About 50 feet below the water’s surface is the Old Dam, which is a popular place to dive, but there is also a lot of trees and twisted debris.

MCSO’s search and rescue diving team has been searching for the victim using a robot because the visibility is so poor in that area.

“The depths that we’re looking at are, in some places, too deep for divers, and even in the areas that we’re capable of diving to, our time is limited,” Deputy Jeff Hanson explained.

 

[IDS_Bill]

Does anybody have an idea of the Certification level of the diver or experience level? Was he a solo diver?

I do not think it is the appropriate time - given that there is an ongoing investigation - to give out this information, assume, surmise or otherwise release any information regarding the diver himself, what actually happened or who was involved.

 

[Jax]

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me (if it were my loved one), I think I'd rather humans looked first. ROVs in lousy vis with "bright lights" just do not fill me with confidence.

 

[IDS_Bill]

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me (if it were my loved one), I think I'd rather humans looked first. ROVs in lousy vis with "bright lights" just do not fill me with confidence.

Would you rather have another victim if the search goes badly? The sonar/video is very effective. You are obviously not grasping just how dangerous it is do dive to that area/depth/conditions.

 

[N2DeepInAz]

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me (if it were my loved one), I think I'd rather humans looked first. ROVs in lousy vis with "bright lights" just do not fill me with confidence.

Jax,

We're talking about an area that's 1/4 mile squared and contains water to depths of over 200ft for most of the area. That's a tremendous volume of water to search and there is very little visibilty at that depth and the trees are monsterous down there. Zoom into the picture that I posted previously. If you look closely at the base of the old dam there are telephone sized poles that were used to run electricity down there and in that picture they look like twigs. Image a human standing next to one of those poles.

This is simply too large, too deep and too dangerous to send a diver into, let alone a group of them for a search. Plus, I don't think you'd be able to find that amount of tech divers willing to risk it based on those conditions.

I do hope they find him to offer some closure to the family, but their search is not a simple one.