Ponce de Leon Inlet diver missing - Florida

[DandyDon]

Coast Guard searches for missing diver | News-JournalOnline.com

The U.S. Coast Guard continued to search for a missing diver Monday night but called off the search for a missing kayaker in separate incidents reported off Ponce de Leon Inlet, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen said Monday night that crews are searching the Atlantic Ocean about 24 miles east of Ponce de Leon Inlet for a 28-year-old diver who was not seen resurfacing.
The crew of the fishing vessel Yellowfin used a VHF-FM marine radio at 11:09 a.m. to report to the Coast Guard in Jacksonville that it had been about one hour since a man dived from the boat with 30 minutes of oxygen but didn't resurface, Jorgensen said.
A Coast Guard crew aboard a C-130 Hercules plane from Clearwater was training nearby and diverted to begin searching for the diver.
While en route to the search area, the crew spotted a 10-foot-long kayak with a white hull overturned about 10 miles from their intended destination, Jorgensen said.
The crew on the plane searched the area around the overturned kayak, left to refuel and returned to the area to continue searching for the diver and the kayaker.
Search crews stopped looking for the kayaker about 8 p.m. Monday, Jorgensen said.
“There never really was any active information that someone was in the kayak,” Jorgensen said. “(Authorities) have no reports of any kayaker who is overdue.”
A 45-foot response boat from the Coast Guard Station in New Smyrna Beach and a crew aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Clearwater continued the search for the missing diver.

After the airplane left, the Atlantic Beach-based Coast Guard Cutter Diamondback and the Miami Beach-based Coast Guard Cutter Sitkinak that arrived at the search scene by 10:30 p.m. Monday continued the search overnight for the diver, Jorgensen said.
Crews had not found sign of the missing diver by late Monday night.
The Coast Guard in Jacksonville broadcast a message for boaters in the area to keep a lookout for the missing diver, Jorgensen said.

 

[MuddyRubberDuck]

Deleted

 

[DandyDon]

Body found in search for diver missing off Ponce Inlet | News-JournalOnline.com

A body matching the description of a 28-year-old Maitland diver who did not resurface in the Atlantic Ocean 24 miles east of Ponce de Leon Inlet was found Tuesday afternoon.

Petty Officer 1st Class Lauren Jorgensen said a member of an independent group of divers assisting the Coast Guard in the search for Ryan Myers found the body before 1 p.m. near where Ryan was last seen Monday morning.
“We are waiting for the medical examiner to determine the identity of the victim,” Jorgensen said of the body which was taken to Coast Guard Station Ponce de Leon in New Smyrna Beach.
The divers who located the body joined crews from the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Diamondback and Coast Guard helicopters and a C-130 Hercules airplane in searching the area where Ryan failed to resurface while spearfishing off an Altamonte Springs-based Yellowfin fishing boat Monday.
The men usually used the New Smyrna Beach boat launches on the North Causeway, said Keith Sterner, owner of New Smyrna Beach’s Sea Dogs dive shop on Flagler Avenue who knew another person on the boat.
Sterner said Myers was one of a trio of men on a commercial fish hunt in an area called the South 15s.
Coast Guard officials said in a press release issued Tuesday afternoon that Myers was diving with Jeffrey Wayne Pries, 44. The third man, who was not identified, stayed aboard the Yellowfin.
“It is over 100 feet deep,” he said Tuesday. “It is definitely an advanced dive.”
Myers disappeared about 10 a.m. Monday. He was carrying about 30 minutes of air in a tank with him, Coast Guard officials said.
"The (boat owner) said they were spearfishing on an underwater ledge,” said Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate David Carrig, officer in charge of Coast Guard Station Ponce de Leon in New Smyrna Beach.
When Ryan failed to resurface after an hour, one of the people aboard the Yellowfin contacted the Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville by radio.
The crew of a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules airplane from Air Station Clearwater in the area for training was diverted to search for the Myers.
Carrig said a crew from Station Ponce de Leon aboard the station’s 45-foot response boat also participated in the search as well as a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Clearwater.

 

[acteg]

I also heard that his mask was cracked/broken, and a grouper was found nearby with 2 shafts in it. My coworker's neighbor knows the deceased. Their is some speculation that speargun recoil hit him in the face, broke his mask, and knocked him unconscious.... not sure how that would happen though...all just hearsay at this point.

 

[Bill D'Antuono]

Havnt seen anything posted about this. The point here is Id like to learn from the cause...and as usual SCUBA deaths usually result in NO evidence and cause of death and we rely on heresay to determine and learn from it.

A customer from my dive shop in Naples died last year and we still have not heard the reason behind it. Pretty sad that we cannot learn from the death of a fellow diver to better ourselves and learn from them. Always sad when you hear someone passing, this guy was my age and doing What i love to do, so Id like to know.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20...f-Missing-Diver-Found-off-Ponce-de-Leon-Inlet

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