SkyAce2004
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NBC2 News Online - Search for missing diver near Gasparilla Pass
CHARLOTTE COUNTY: The Coast Guard, along with local and state agencies, has been searching for a missing 67-year old diver near Gasparilla Pass in Charlotte County.
The captain of a 27-foot boat from Legacy Dive Charters of Southwest Florida called the Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard Station around 11:35 a.m. to report that one of the six divers aboard his vessel was missing.
According to the Coast Guard, the man had surfaced from a dive while the charter vessel was retrieving another diver, and he had disappeared before the boat returned to pick him up.
The Coast Guard Stations of Fort Myers Beach and Station Cortez, along with a Jayhawk rescue helicopter from the Coast Guard Air Station in Clearwater, marine units from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Lee County Sheriff's Office, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Boca Grande Fire and Rescue and Captiva Island Fire and Rescue are all searching the area for the missing diver.
The diver's name has not been released so that the next-of-kin notification can be made first.
The diver was wearing a black and blue wet suit with yellow fins and an air tank, according to the report.