Coast Guard searching for missing diver

BALTIMORE - The Coast Guard is searching this evening for a diver that reportedly went missing in the Potomac River.

The Coast Guard received a report at about 3 p.m. that a diver with the Fairfax County State Police Marine Unit went missing during a training mission near Gunston Cove in the Potomac River just south of Fort Belvoir, Va.

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Coast Guard Continues Search for Missing Diver

MIAMI - The Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary, along with local and state agencies, continue to search for a missing 51-year-old diver near Jupiter Beach, Fla.

Eve Schwartz was reported missing to the Coast Guard around 9:45 p.m. Friday by the crew of the Blue Tang, a commercial dive boat, which she was diving from at the time of her disappearance. Schwartz was reported missing after she failed to surface from her dive.

Assisting in the search is:

* Two rescue boat crews from Coast Guard Station Lake Worth, Fla.
* An HH-65C Dolphin helicopter crew and an HU-25 Falcon jet crew from Coast Guard Air Station Miami.
* Coast Guard Cutter Cormorant.
* Coast Guard Auxiliary rescue boat crews.
* Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission boat crew.

Officials have been searching the area since about 10 a.m. Friday.

Coast Guard Searching For Missing Diver

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Coast Guard is searching for a missing diver after he did not resurface 50-miles southeast of Mayport, Fla., Wednesday at 11:25 a. m.

The diver is a 46-year-old man in a blue dive suit diving from the pleasure boat Animal Control. When the diver did not resurface, the passengers of Animal Control called rescue coordinators at Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville.

The Coast Guard has launched a 47-foot rescue boat crew from Station Mayport and a rescue helicopter crew from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., to search for the missing man.

CG medevacs woman from San Miguel Island

SAN MIGUEL ISLAND, Calif. - The Coast Guard medically evacuated a 50 year-old-woman from the west side of San Miguel Island Saturday morning after she experienced complications following a dive.

At approximately 11:00 a.m. this morning the Coast Guard was notified by the vessel Truth that a woman aboard was complaining of a loss of feeling in her limbs following a dive. A rescue helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles and a 47-foot motor life boat from Coast Guard Station Channel Islands were dispatched to the scene.

Once on scene the air crew brought the woman into the helicopter and transported her safely to the hyperbaric chamber on Catalina Island about 40 minutes away.

San Miguel Island is part of Channel Islands National Park and it is the westernmost of California’s Channel Islands.

Coast Guard and F.U.R.A. Combine Efforts to Rescue Diver in Guanica Waters

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The crews of a Coast Guard helicopter and a Puerto Rico Police marine unit combined efforts to save a diver Wednesday in waters approximately three nautical miles southwest of the Playa Santa, Guanica shoreline.

The survivor is a 25 year-old man, resident of Guanica, who had gone out diving at 7 a.m. Wednesday and was expected to return from his dive three hours later.

Coast Guard Search and Rescue Coordinators at Sector San Juan received a call at 10:47 a.m. Wednesday from a friend of the diver, who requested assistance from the Coast Guard to search for the overdue diver.

Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen, Aguadilla launched a HH-65 Dolphin helicopter at 11:17 a.m. Wednesday to search for the overdue diver. The Coast Guard helicopter crew located the diver in distress at 11:54 a.m. waving his fins at the helicopter crew for assistance. The crew of a Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces of Rapid Action F.U.R.A. marine unit, operating in the vicinity, also arrived on scene and recovered the diver from the water and brought him on board the police vessel.

The crew of the F.U.R.A. marine unit transported the diver to the fishing village in Playa Santa, where he was transferred to awaiting paramedics who transported the diver to the Guanica Treatment Center, where he was later released in good health.

“It’s a good diving practice for divers to go out with a dive partner and mark the dive area with a proper dive flag as well as having available proper signaling equipment to facilitate search and rescue aircraft and vessels in locating them during a distress,” said Lt. j.g. George Suchanek, Air Station Borinquen HH-65 Dolphin helicopter pilot.

Here are some safety tips to remember before and during a dive:

• Never dive by yourself.
• Ensure you have a dive plan and a diving “buddy.
• File a float plan with a family member or friend. If you decide to deviate from your original intended plan, notify your emergency contact immediately.
• Check your dive equipment carefully and ensure that equipment functions correctly.
• Mark the area in which you are diving with a dive flag and a light. This is a federally mandated law and required when divers are in the water.
• Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion, hypothermia and dehydration, as well as procedures for emergency treatment.
• Check local weather conditions before diving.
• Taking basic safety precautions while diving will increase your chance of surviving a potential diving accident.
• Boat operators should be alert and aware of dive flags.
• If you have not been SCUBA diving in the past year, please ensure you are physically capable of handling ocean conditions before diving.
• Divers should have proper diving signalling equipment in case of a distress.

LA Coast Guard responds to sinking dive vessel with 35 people on board

LOS ANGELES — Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles received a report that the 70-foot commercial dive vessel Vision was taking on water seven miles north of San Nicolas Island, Calif.

The vessel’s crew reported that they lost their rudder and were sinking. The crew was able to apply a temporary patch to slow the flooding, and the Coast Guard requested all 35 people (28 passengers and seven crew members) to put on lifejackets.

Coast Guard assets that responded included an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Los Angeles, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Sector San Diego, the Coast Guard Cutter Blackfin, and a C-130 aircraft from Air Station Sacramento.

The Naval vessel Robert E. Peary is also enroute to the scene with an estimated arrival time of 2 p.m.

Air Station Los Angeles Weekend Includes Alaskan Rescue

LOS ANGELES – Aircrews from the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Los Angeles were busy this past weekend responding to medical evacuations ranging from scuba diving incidents in Southern California to medical injuries off the coast of Alaska.

On the morning of July 26th Air Station Los Angeles responded to a call from the diving vessel Bottom Scratcher with a report of a 69 year old male with labored breathing after a 112’ dive at oil platform Eureka, off the coast near Long Beach, Calif. The Coast Guard HH-65C Dolphin helicopter arrived on scene and lowered a rescue swimmer and litter to assist with medical aid. Also on scene were lifeguard vessels from L.A. and Orange County Lifeguard stations throughout the area. As the aircrew made preparations to hoist the patient they were diverted to a higher priority dive incident near San Nicholas Island. The rescue swimmer was hoisted back to the helicopter to divert and the victim was transferred by L.A. County Lifeguards and then taken Long Beach Memorial Hospital.

The aircrew returned to the air station for fuel, then responded to the dive boat PEACE near San Nicholas Island for another call. PEACE reported a 60 year old male suffering from a possible diving related illness and radioed for assistance. The helicopter arrived on scene and lowered the rescue swimmer to the dive vessel. The patient and swimmer were then hoisted to the helicopter and the patient delivered to the USC Hyperbaric Chamber located at Two Harbors, on Catalina Island.

On Sunday, July 27, 2008, an aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles, while deployed aboard a Coast Guard cutter in the Bering Sea, medically evacuated two patients. The crew flew in the early morning hours to the M/V AMAZON for a patient suffering from chest pain. The crew hoisted the patient and transported him to Earekson Air Station on Shemya Island, Alaska, to awaiting paramedics. After the patient was dropped off, the aircrew and helo departed to Attu Island, approximately 1,700 miles West of Anchorage and only 200 miles East of Russia, to medically transport a patient suffering from a compound fracture of the foot. The patient was picked up and transported to EMS at Shemya Island as well. Weather made the flying difficult, as the visibility was only about half of a mile and the fog layer at 75-175 ft off the water.

The aircrews at the Los Angeles based Coast Guard Air Station are trained to handle many types of scenarios and heve to be able to adapt to constantly changing conditions during emergency cases. This past weekend demonstrated how training leads to successful operational missions and lives being saved; From the sunny weather in Southern California, all the way to the stormy seas off Alaska.

Air station Los Angeles averages about 200 emergency cases and saves or assists approximately 75 lives a year.

Based on a Public Affairs Detachment Los Angeles press release.

Diver’s body recovered off Nantucket

The Cape Cod Times reports that the Coast Guard has recovered a body that is believed to be the diver reported missing yesterday morning.

Coast Guard officials said that until the body is identified, they could not be sure that it was the diver they were searching for.

The body was placed on the Cutter Hammerhead and transported to the Montauk, NY coroners office.

An investigation into the incident will be conducted by Coast Guard Sector Long Island.