Missing Diver in NC

[OBXDIVEGUY]

Has anyone heard any details about the missing diver off of Ocracoke, NC? I've heard the Pan Pans on the radio from the Coast Guard since Saturday.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Has anyone heard any details about the missing diver off of Ocracoke, NC? I've heard the Pan Pans on the radio from the Coast Guard since Saturday.

Don't take this the wrong way because I don't mean it to be a smart ***** remark but I figured you'd have more of the straight scoop on it than we would since you are USCG.
I've heard nothing since Saturday evening.

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

Yeah, you would think I'd know something about it, but it was out of my area of responsibility so any info I have is second hand.

So far, I've heard it was a father / son group, and the son never surfaced. They are still searching for him today.

My prayers are with him and his searchers / rescuers.

Don't take this the wrong way because I don't mean it to be a smart ***** remark but I figured you'd have more of the straight scoop on it than we would since you are USCG.
I've heard nothing since Saturday evening.

 

[Cathan]

From today's Washington Post:

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Search for Frederick Diver Continues

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The U.S. Coast Guard continues to search for a Frederick County man lost while scuba diving in the waters off Ocracoke Island, N.C.

Richard Pryor, 34, of New Market was diving with his father, Wade, and eight others Saturday morning when he failed to resurface with the group. Pryor, who works for Earth Beautiful Inc., his family's Damascus-based landscaping business, was on a charter expedition to explore a shipwreck in 90 feet of water about 18 miles east of Ocracoke Island. He was last seen by the members of his party about 11 a.m., when he had about 45 minutes left in his oxygen tanks, said Coast Guard spokesman Christopher Evanson.

When Pryor failed to surface, the owners of the charter company plunged into the Atlantic to search but found no sign of him. They then radioed the Coast Guard, which began a search "within a half-hour," said Wade Pryor, keeping vigil with his wife at his New Market home, where his son also lives.

As of yesterday afternoon, a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, a Coast Guard helicopter, rescue boats and local volunteers had failed to find Pryor, a bodybuilder who has been diving since he was in his teens. Searchers planned to continue through last night.

Wade Pryor, 52, said there were no areas that could have trapped his son in the shipwreck, the collapsed remains of a transport boat torpedoed by the Germans during World War II. "Richard dove this wreck just on July 9. We dive about 50 times a year up and down the East Coast. We had new equipment. We did everything by the numbers. Something must have gone awry."

An experienced diver himself, Wade Pryor said that his son may have had a health crisis or strayed too far and got lost. "Maybe he followed some interesting sea life," Pryor said. "Maybe he was following something really beautiful, and now he's adrift at sea."

 

[fishhunta]

Father's post on spearboard....
http://www.spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21178

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Father's post on spearboard....
http://www.spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21178

Thank you for posting this. My heart goes out to the family.

Doc

 

[RAD Diver]

That was a hard read & prayers go out to them.