Mystery surrounds diver deaths in Arctic (Coast Guard)

AP via Comcast News ^ | 24 September 2006 | Gene Johnson

[Moose4]

SEATTLE - Five hundred miles north of Alaska, a group of shipmates from the Coast Guard cutter Healy tossed a football on the blue-and-white, diamond-hard Arctic ice.

Others snapped panoramic photos and took walks during the two-hour break, stretching their legs after a month aboard the 420-foot icebreaker.

Lt. Jessica Hill and Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque seized the chance for a training dive and slipped into a patch of open water near the Healy's bow. A team held ropes attached to the divers, lest they become disoriented under the ice. Several research scientists watched from the deck.

But no one knows what happened on the other end of those ropes on that cold, brilliant summer day _ except that both divers died.

[DollyCali]

diving & coast guard ping.

Thanks for the thread Moose, I missed the original.. thanks for ping Bitt

[Moose4]

Thanks, Dave. I did a search on the original headline to see if I was posting a duplicate, but I didn't find anything, and even if I had, I wouldn't have gone back far enough--I didn't realize that this happened almost two months ago. I have no clue why Comcast suddenly decided to rotate this story onto their main news webpage--I guess the new article, with a little more background, by the AP writer.

I'll try to keep an eye out for more information.

}:-)4

[satchmodog9]

bump

[CedarDave]

It is very likely that a contributing cause to these deaths can be tracked back to the Clinton White House and flawed thinking within the Coast Guard itself.

Missing from this and all other articles related to these deaths is some pertinent information about the Cutter Healy itself...it is a floating death trap. From it's very inception, as dictated by a White House intent on cutting costs, the Healy was designed to be heavily automated and with a bare minimum crew.

The Coast Guard has always been the poor sister to the other military services as it has had to fight other priorities for money within the Dept. of Transportation versus the other branches in the Defense Department. Now in the Dept. of Homeland Security, its budget has been increased by 2.9 billion (Pres. Bush, July 31, 2006, CG Station Miami). Though most is going to port security, hopefully some will trickle down to the other missions.

See this thread for two new films that spotlight the CG.

[CWOJackson]

Thanks for the ping to the other thread. I'm probably going to take a pass on the Hollywood movie...imagine having something you spent over thirty years in made into a movie starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutchner...I guess they couldn't get Alec Baldwin and Ben Afleck.

[BurbankKarl]

Divers died as party went on above

USCG Diver update...