The Florida Keys witnessed its third tragic diving incident in a span of eight days, as a man died while diving the Spiegel Grove wreck off Key Largo on Aug. 9.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, divers with Horizon Divers recovered the man, who wasn’t named in the report. He was brought back to the commercial boat around 1 p.m.
Adam Linhardt, MCSO spokesman, said detectives are investigating and working to notify next-of-kin.
Sunken off the Keys in 2002, the Spiegel Grove wreck sits at a maximum depth of 130 feet. The 510-foot-long, former U.S. Navy landing ship dock serves as a reef ecosystem roughly 6 miles offshore.
More than a week ago, 13-year-old Marathon boy Ben Segard passed away in a tragic dive accident. He was spearfishing with a fellow friend roughly 8 miles south of Duck Key when the incident occurred. A good Samaritan mariner transported him ashore to Marathon where he was taken to the hospital.
“This is a heartbreaking and tragic case,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement following the incident. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this difficult time.”
The following day, Key West diver Tommy Faulkenberry went missing during a dive at the Vandenberg shipwreck roughly 7 miles off Key West. Crewmembers aboard the vessel Dream Cat contacted Coast Guard Sector Key West on Aug. 2, reporting one of their divers overdue from a morning dive to the site of the 522-foot-long USS Vandenberg shipwreck.
For days, locals, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies searched some 4,300 square nautical miles for the 44-year-old man. By Aug. 7, the Coast Guard suspended its search.
— This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
