Father, Son Die in Diving Accident; 3 Others Injured

A scuba diving excursion to a shipwreck off San Pedro ended in tragedy Sunday when a man and his 14-year-old son died and three other divers required decompression treatment after a rescue at sea, authorities said.

County lifeguard and Coast Guard rescue teams were called to the Atlantis, a commercial diving boat anchored six miles off Cabrillo Beach, after the skipper reported at 2 p.m. that one diver had surfaced unconscious and two others--a 38-year-old man and his teen-age son--were missing, according to Los Angeles County Life Guard Capt. Russ Walker.

None of the divers were immediately identified.

Lifeguards administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the unconscious diver and transported him to a decompression chamber on Catalina Island for treatment, Walker said.

Two other divers in the party surfaced on their own, but later began to show symptoms of “the bends,” a condition that can occur when divers rise too quickly to the surface from deep water and experience pain in the limbs and abdomen from the rapid reduction in pressure, which causes gas bubbles in their blood to expand. They were also taken to the decompression chamber.

With the help of Coast Guard helicopters and cutters, rescue workers about 4:30 p.m. found the father-and-son divers some 140 feet below the surface, Walker said. CPR was administered to the teen-age diver, but he was pronounced dead after he was transported to the Catalina decompression chamber.

The father, who was not breathing when found, was pronounced dead on arrival at Torrance Memorial Hospital, hospital officials said.

Walker said the group was diving near a lighthouse between San Pedro and Catalina.

He speculated that they ran into trouble “because they dove at 140 feet and may not have been watching their dive tables,” which advise them how to safely rise to the surface.