Missing Diver at Lake Pleasant

[N2DeepInAz]

I first want to say that everyone involved in this is in my thoughts and I hope the MCSO guys are able to make a quick and safe recovery.

I have heard that the group on the boat was Coast Guard Auxiliary, not sure if they were just doing recreational dives or training. IF what the news is reporting is correct then it was just recreational. I won't make any further speculation.

I dive the old Waddell Dam quite a bit and can at least give a little insight to that. First of all, it’s an old dam that is under water. When the new dam was built they cut a pretty large breach into to old dam (about 220 feet across) this is usually where a dive boat will tie into the dam at one side of the breach or the other. The top of the dam is at about 50-60 feet this time of year, depending on the lake level.

I’m not sure what current conditions are but three weeks ago there was very little visibility, from zero to 10 feet depending on depth and how close you got to the end of the dam where it meets “land” From what I’ve been hearing the visibility is still bad. I’m headed out there today and will post the conditions this afternoon.

Once again, depending on the current lake level the top of the dam is between 50-60 feet and it can go to below 200 feet at the bottom If this is where they are searching for the missing diver, the conditions at the bottom are downright scary. There are huge blocks of concrete and rebar and it's a jumbled up mess. I have some friends who did a tech dive here to try and recover some lost gear and they said that when they got down into the rebar that they thumbed the dive, it was just to dangerous.

The link below is about the breaching of the dam and there's some pretty good photos.

The breaching of the Old Waddell Dam

I'm simply going to reiterate this comment above. Gdaaym8z paints a very realistic scenario of how the dives are usually done there. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the lost diver as well as the crew of the dive boat and all those aboard. This is a horrific event. Our local dive family has lost a fellow member and that saddens me.

I have a tremendous amount of dives on this structure in the past year and as of the past few weeks the visibility has easily dropped to around 0-10ft with it decreasing as you swim west across the top of the dam which is around 60ft at this point. The dam is a very challenging dive when the viz is good, when it's bad it's almost impossible to dive as it's almost like diving in a blackout mask. I dive with a few different high powered can lights and at times they were barely enough for me to avoid running into obstructions. If you go to the north side you can visit the bottom at around 120ft, if you go to the south side it drops off to around 200ft into the river bed which is covered in trees and debris from the breaching of the dam and years of trash floating downstream.

To rebutt the fisherman's comment in the news feed, in all my dives not once have I ever even seen fishing line along the dam for divers to get tangled in. This structure is massive, we're talking over 1000ft long and 170ft tall at it's deepest point. Fishermen rarely fish in this area due to depth. When the lake is full in the winter the depth south of the old dam is well over 225ft deep.

 

[ThankfulFamilyMember]

Thank you all for your insight into this horrible event. My family appreciates real information as opposed to local news coverage as we try to work through this tragedy.

 

[Jax]

5:32 AZ time and no more news?

I searched.

 

[tracydr]

Wow! Close to home. Deep, dark and cold. We never dive the dam for those reasons. Can't see any reason to unless you just need a really deep, cold low- vis dive.
I hope the diver is found soon. Prayers to his family and fellow divers.

 

[DamUScubaSteve]

Me and buddy were skin diving on that day and saw the MCSO boats when we went to check out the dam around 1:30pm. The accident was about 300-400yds northeast of that concrete structure. The water level was about 90ftish near the concrete structure. We did a few dives in the cove directly west of the dam. Visibility was about 3-5ft at 20ft. Dark murky green water.

 

[diversteve]

5:32 AZ time and no more news?

I searched.

Last Updated: 1 hour and 1 minute ago

PEORIA, AZ - Authorities have called off the search for the night Sunday after another day of searching for a missing scuba diver at Lake Pleasant.

Crews were not able to locate the diver and plan to resume the search Monday morning.

ABC15 seems to be adding to the start of the post on their website.

 

[Gdaaym8z]

I didn't want to make any comment on the fisherman being interviewed for this before but I couldn't believe when I saw the quote in the paper.....and then in the video that Jax posted. Let's get a statement that has zero to do with what is going on and run it on the air. Gotta love today's media. For as many flaming threads as I read on here, at least when sorted through we can get some useful information.

As of last night....it appears that the search is continuing.

I went to Vista Pointe and Beismeyer yesterday and visibility was in the 1-2 foot range with a few places opening up to about 4-5. if conditions are like this near the dam then the search is going to be very difficult.

 

[Jax]

MCSO: Lake Pleasant diver still missing

Posted: 10/16/2010
Last Updated: 3 hours and 26 minutes ago {5:21 Az time}

PEORIA, AZ - Authorities have called off the search for the night Sunday after another day of searching for a missing scuba diver at Lake Pleasant.

Crews were not able to locate the diver and plan to resume the search Monday morning.

The search resumed at 9 a.m. Sunday after crews suspended the search for the night Saturday around 7:30 p.m., according to Jeff Sprong with the Maricopa Sheriff's Office.

Peoria Fire Capt. Billy Morris said a small group was diving near Waddell Dam around 11:30 a.m. Saturday, and when they went under for a dive all but one resurfaced.

"There's three groups of four, in their dive teams and they were only down for a little bit and one of the members got away from the group and they never found him again and he never surfaced," Morris said.

Morris said it was about five minutes before the group noticed the 48-year-old man was missing.

What happened to the diver is still a mystery.

From noon until nightfall MCSO divers used a remote camera to search the lake where the man went in but there was no sign of him.

"When there's 200 feet of water and a lot of area, obviously the currents aren't that big and they're not moving around a lot, but it's quite a big area," Morris said.

Fellow divers say there's any number of scenarios that could have happened to the man.

"It's so easy to get disoriented and not know what direction you're going," said Kelly Stellar.

Lake Pleasant fisherman Larry Courtemash says the man could have been trapped by something.

"It doesn't have to be a tree down there," said Courtemash. "It could be fishing line down there that you are tangled in and it's tough to get out of it unless you've got a knife."

The news is sure stuck on this Courtemash guy.

 

[Jax]

Search continues at Lake Pleasant for missing diver {Video at this link}

by Natalie Rivers
azfamily.com
Posted on October 18, 2010 at 8:00 AM
Updated today at 8:27 AM

PHOENIX -- A group of divers went underwater over the weekend, but one of them has yet to resurface as crews continue to search Lake Pleasant for the missing man.

The Maricopa County sheriff's dive team has been out at the lake for two days, searching for a man who disappeared underwater Saturday during a group dive.

Dive teams and search crews are hoping for the best.

According to sheriff's officials, the diver went underwater near the Waddell Dam and never resurfaced.

There is no further information regarding the diver.

At this point, it is being called a recovery mission.

 

[Gdaaym8z]

This just released.

Identity of diver released.

Story:

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on Monday continued the search for a Phoenix man who went missing two days ago while scuba diving near a dangerous area of Lake Pleasant, near the dam.

Timothy Borger, 48, did not resurface when he and a small group dove into the water around noon Saturday


Deputy Jeff Sprong said rescuers continued the search around 7 a.m. Monday.

The group was diving in an area of deep water that contains debris such as steel and concrete from the dam, Sprong said.

The water is so dark that rescue divers cannot see their hands when they put them in the water, he said. They must rely on feel rather than sight to locate Borger, Sprong said.