Missing Diver: Boca Grande - Legacy Dive Charters

[SkyAce2004]

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.

 

[dkramer]

I wonder if that was out by the Rich Novak Reef. They usually do that as a drift dive. I hope they are able to find him.

 

[sglake]

Yes that's terrible to hear. I hope that everything turns out good!

 

[sglake]

I see a small article on it now in the Charlotte Sun. It says the boat left to assist another diver and upon their return could not find him.

 

[Scubasteve1982]

The boat left?

 

[Marvel]

The boat left?

I'm betting that they simply went to pick up another diver that surfaced first. I hope he turns up safely.

 

[Siilverback]

I'm a member of the local PSD team and the first I heard about this was on the 11pm news.

 

[Dive Junky]

The boat left?

Legacy Dive Charters is John Sturms outfit out of Placida. Top notch guy. I am sure it was no fault of his.

 

[Siilverback]

Has anybody heard anything? I have not seen any updates on the news or anything.

 

[sglake]

No I've been watching different news sources through out the day and they have had no new information that I have seen.