Diver from Framingham missing in FL Keys

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

large_diver

Contributor
Messages
2,600
Reaction score
291
Location
Boston, MA USA European refugee
AP reports diver missing in Islamorada
Diver Missing in the Florida Keys
The Associated Press

ISLAMORADA, Fla. (AP) - Authorities were searching for a diver Monday who was reported missing off the coast of the Florida Keys.

Tatyana Smirnov, 29, of Framingham, Mass., did not return from a dive Sunday after an excursion with 12 others on the boat "Tropic Vista" near Islamorada, Monroe County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.

Smirnov's dive buddy, Alexei Elinson, 35, also of Massachusetts, said they were diving in approximately 40 feet of water at Crocker Reef late Sunday afternoon. Elinson said they surfaced to check the location of the vessel and realized they needed to return.

Elinson told authorities when they began swimming, he got ahead of Smirnov and lost contact with her. He then realized he was too far from the boat to make it on his own.

The dive boat reported two missing divers Sunday and a search was conducted by the Coast Guard, officers from the Fish and Wildlife Commission and the sheriff's helicopter.

Elinson was found floating in good condition. Authorities said there was no sign of Smirnov.

The team returned to the area Monday to resume its search.

AP-ES-11-10-03 1305EST

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGA7MZUTUMD.html
 
So I am assuming wistles and safty sausages were not the equipment of the day. Dont leave home without either especially on or near open water.

I am assuming and I should not do that. This is a terrible thing.
 
The weather was terrible..all of the dive operators here in the Lower Keys area of Big Pine & Cudjoe cancelled due to bad weather....winds & currents.
 
I tryed to make a PM dive from Key Largo on Sunday and the boat I was on went as far as getting out of the canal and into open water. Then the captain said it was not safe and we turned back and went in. The rain at times was so heavy that you could not see 20 feet ABOVE the water and the winds where quite stiff as well as haveing a lot of lightning in the area.
 
Anyone know if they were diving with a local dive shop or out of a private boat ? Seem kind of foolish diving under those condition's...Easy for me to say , I was'nt there BUT...:confused:
 
Folks, just to address this "diving in horrid weather foolishness" insinuation.

The initial plan was to visit Duane and another site.
Around 1:30PM while we were loading gear the captain informed us that patches of some real rough weather are coming through and that if we did not want to cancel we’d wait and see where it goes and we’d go the other way.

We did wait and the storms did pass by. The first dive was Eagle. Surface conditions: a bit windy, some current, about 2’ swells, partly cloudy with an occasional raindrop. Not perfect, but certainly divable.
Couple folks including the girl who is missing opted not to go on this one. I (among eleven others) did go and had a nice enjoyable dive. No current at the bottom, 81F, 45’+ viz.

Second dive was a 30-35’ deep reef. My buddy told me it’s called Aquarium, later in papers it was reported as Crocker. So I’m not sure where we were or what the name is. Surface conditions at the beginning of the dive were not poor, not fair, but good. If you have means of verifying the conditions, we entered the water around 4:10 PM.
If I had to pick 3 most easy and simple dives in my lifetime this one would’ve made it.

It did get a little choppy an hour later when we were exiting, and got pretty bad few hours later, but not during the dive.

At this point I am not prepared to discuss any other aspects of what happened. Perhaps, some time later.

Bottom line is: please use careful discretion while posting in threads like this. We are talking about a person whose fate is unknown, and who has relatives, friends, dive buddies, who may be reading.

And, as the last note, it was implied that the captain or the dive operator acted irresponsibly taking divers out in such bad weather. Please rest assured that was not the case.
 
Lemonade told us..
At this point I am not prepared to discuss any other aspects of what happened. Perhaps, some time later.

Thanks for your post. I look forward to "The Rest of the Story"
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom