In Reply to: Searchers Unable To Locate Missing Diver on the Yukon posted by on June 27, 2005 at 01:18:02:

50-Year-Old Diving Instructor Disappeared While Exploring Wreck

SAN DIEGO -- Searchers located a body presumed to be a missing diving instructor Monday, three days after the man disappeared while exploring a sunken warship about two miles offshore from Mission Beach.

Steven O. Donathan, 50, was last seen Saturday afternoon by a student he was leading on a 100-foot dive to the Canadian destroyer Yukon. The two became separated, and Donathan never resurfaced.

The 366-foot decommissioned Canadian warship is a popular diving destination in the so-called Wreck Alley off the coast of San Diego. Rescue divers searched the ship until dark Saturday. The search continued Sunday, when divers made about 60 descents and searched 90 percent of the ship's interior, lifeguards said.

The search resumed at 6 a.m. Monday, and divers located Donathan's body several hours later. Divers were unable to recover the body immediately, because it was wedged in an area that made access difficult, lifeguards said.

"For someone as experienced as Steve, the Yukon should have been a piece of cake," said Steve Haynes, former president of San Diego Council of Divers, who heard that the missing diver was Donathan.

The Yukon was deliberately sunk two miles off the coast five years ago. It was the site of a fatal dive in late 2000 when Monica Vila, a 41-year-old recreational diver, died as she descended toward the warship with two family members.

Another experienced diver, Mia Tegner, a 53-year-old marine biologist, died about a week later after diving on the Yukon and other sunken ships. Authorities say she ran out of air as she was coming to the surface, missing a decompression stop. Instead of heading to a hyperbaric chamber, investigators believe she grabbed another tank and dove back in to decompress and was never seen alive again.

Searchers located a body presumed to be a missing diving instructor Monday, three days after the man disappeared while exploring a sunken warship about two miles offshore from Mission Beach.

Steven O. Donathan, 50, was last seen Saturday afternoon by a student he was leading on a 100-foot dive to the Canadian destroyer Yukon.

The two became separated, and Donathan never resurfaced.

The 366-foot decommissioned Canadian warship is a popular diving destination in the so-called Wreck Alley off the coast of San Diego.

The Yukon was deliberately sunk two miles off coast five years ago.

Rescue divers made about 60 descents Sunday and searched 90 percent of the ship's interior.

Lifeguards called off the search in the early afternoon because of poor underwater visibility.

Lifeguards were up early Monday to resume the search.

Searchers began loading their equipment onto boats before 6 a.m.

The located the body in the Yukon several hours later.

Donathan made headlines several years ago, when he located a B-36 bomber that crashed off the coast in 1952.

The crew of the plane parachuted to safety, but the pilot remained with the plane, make sure that it crashed into the ocean and not into Point Loma or La Jolla.

Donathan studied official and news reports about the crash and finally located the wreck of the plane more than 50 years after it went down.

• NBC San Diego