VENTURA : Student Diver Dies in Catalina Accident

A 22-year-old Chatsworth woman enrolled in a Ventura scuba school died Friday in a diving accident off Santa Catalina Island, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

The woman, whose name was not released, was a student diver on a boat operated by the Ventura Dive & Sport school, Deputy Douglas Miller said.

Five other student divers and two teachers were swimming from a vessel called Peace in 100 feet of water at about 10 a.m. in an area called Farnsworth Bank, Sgt. Bob Wachsmuth said. When the rest of the group surfaced, they noticed the woman was missing, Wachsmuth said. The others then submerged and found her unconscious on the ocean floor.

She was taken to the County-USC Hyperbaric Dive Chamber on the island, where she was treated for decompression illness and pronounced dead at 1 p.m., Wachsmuth said.