Posted by kelpdiver on September 18, 2000 at 14:11:27:
In Reply to: La Crescenta Fatality? posted by SLANG on September 18, 2000 at 11:55:41:
Original Daily News Article:
http://www.dailynews.com/archives/today/new06.asp
Scuba diver drowns in water-filled shaft
By Harrison Sheppard
Staff Writer
LA CRESCENTA -- An Arizona man who was scuba diving with his
brother in a water-filled mine shaft died Sunday after he was apparently
trapped in the shaft and ran out of air, sheriff's officials said.
The 38-year-old man, whose name was not released, was a certified scuba
diver with the U.S. Air Force rescue team and had dived in the La
Crescenta area before with his brother, a La Crescenta resident, according
to Los Angeles County fire inspector Edward Osorio.
The two brothers went down the shaft
for a recreational dive around 11 a.m.
Sunday, but lost contact at some point
during the dive, officials said. The La
Crescenta man tried to pull on his
brother's tether line, but it was stuck.
He then went to the sheriff's station at
1:20 p.m., according to sheriff's Sgt.
Walter Wiley.
His brother had 2 1/2 hours of air in
his tank.
A diver from the Sheriff's Department
found the body at 5:45 p.m., Wiley
said.
The shaft -- 5 to 6 feet wide, 7 to 8
feet high and 400 to 600 feet long --
was dug around 1914 in an attempt to
develop a water source for the private property on Shields Street, Osorio
said.
The first 200 feet are dry -- with the water held in by the material from a
past collapse, he said.
Investigators were not certain yet how the diver got stuck in the shaft.