this is the info I have as follows
Man dies while on diving excursion
Despite an autopsy, the cause of death is not known. The victim waved for a boat to pick him up, but he stopped breathing once aboard.
By CHRIS TISCH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 12, 2002
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CLEARWATER -- Twice Sunday morning, Ed Walker told his wife to skip the diving trip. The seas were churning at about 5 feet, too rough to dive, he told her.
But his wife's father, Frederick Fischer, wanted to go. He loved to dive. Fischer and his daughter, Janet Walker, headed out on the charter boat Sea Fox. The 50-foot boat stopped at a ledge 12 miles off Clearwater Beach, where Fischer and other divers plunged into about 55 feet of water.
Fischer went in, but his daughter was too seasick. Coincidentally, Ed Walker, a fishing charter captain, had parked his boat about 500 yards away on the same ledge. Walker was angling in a tournament.
About a half-hour after the divers got wet, one of Ed Walker's fishing mates saw someone on the Sea Fox waving a shirt, trying to get their attention. About the same time, Walker's cell phone rang.
"It was my wife screaming hysterically and begging me to come help because her Dad was dead," Walker said Monday.
The captain of the Sea Fox, Herman Maddox, radioed to the U.S. Coast Guard that something had gone wrong. Fischer had been diving for 26 minutes when he came up, waving his hand to be picked up. Once he got on the boat, he passed out. There was no breathing, no pulse, according to a U.S. Coast Guard report.
Maddox gunned the boat toward Clearwater Beach. Ed Walker steered his boat alongside. Maddox and others tried CPR, but Fischer never regained a pulse. After an hourlong trip to shore, he was taken to Morton Plant Hospital and pronounced dead.
"It was just killing me thinking what my wife was looking at, her Dad dying," Ed Walker said Monday. "I never felt so helpless in my life. That's probably the hardest thing, is thinking about the scene on that boat for an hour running back to shore, and I couldn't do anything at all."
It's still not known how Fischer, who would have turned 57 on Friday, died. Though an autopsy was performed Monday, a cause of death was not established. Ed Walker said police told his family that neither a heart attack nor a drowning caused the death, but the Medical Examiner's Office could not confirm that Monday.
The U.S. Coast Guard will investigate the incident, said Petty Officer Paul Rhynard.
Maddox said he doesn't know how Fischer died, but it appeared to be a heart attack. He said several years ago a diver had a heart attack while on his charter, which he has owned with his wife for about nine years.
"I suspect this is probably the same," he said. "It had every indication to me. It's very, very unfortunate."
Ed Walker, who also writes fishing columns as a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times, said Fischer was a certified and experienced diver with 67 open-water dives.
Walker is questioning two things about the incident: Why Maddox took the divers out in such rough water; and why the U.S. Coast Guard didn't respond.
Maddox said the conditions were fine for diving.
"I wouldn't have taken anybody out if it wasn't appropriate," he said. "The conditions were certainly not unsafe. There were other dive boats out yesterday, in fact smaller than mine, and I think it was quite comfortable for them."
The U.S. Coast Guard report notes that seas were 4 to 5 feet and winds 5 to 10 knots out of the north-northwest.
"I don't want to sue him or anything like that," Walker said. "I just question his judgment on that one. I'm not saying he's responsible for what happened, because we don't know what happened to my father-in-law. But I just can't believe someone would take a group of divers out in 5-foot seas and put them in the water."
On Oct. 26, a 15-year-old boy was injured while diving off the same boat, the Sea Fox, when he spit out his regulator and ascended too quickly. He was treated for the bends and has recovered, Maddox said.
The two incidents have nothing in common, he said.
As for the Coast Guard, it sent a boat but missed the Sea Fox as it headed in, said Rhynard, a Coast Guard spokesman.
He said it's not uncommon for boats to miss each other if seas are rough and the crew has to stop to check other incoming vessels, as they did Sunday. And in this case, meeting them halfway only would have slowed the Sea Fox's progress to shore and would not have helped, Rhynard said.
"Yes, we missed them," Rhynard said. "Even if they had met head-to-head, it wouldn't have changed the outcome."
He said a helicopter could not have been readied and dispatched in time.
Walker said his father-in-law worked as a builder and contractor. He is survived by his wife and two children. He was building a $400,000 house for the Walkers near the water in Tarpon Springs.
"He was the best guy. He wouldn't let us give him any money," Walker said. "He said he just wanted to tie up a little boat in the back and go fishing . . . and hang around our house at the pool. That's all he wanted out of the deal."
-- Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or
tisch@sptimes.com .
Does anyone have any information on these accidents. One occured this weekend and involved the death of a 56 year old man?
