Southeast : Fatal Scuba Excursion Survivor Tried to Help Young Victim

One of the survivors of Sunday’s fatal deep-water diving accident off San Pedro said a 14-year-old boy who drowned was having “buoyancy problems” that were keeping him from rising to the surface quickly enough.

Jeff Highley said he shared his air supply with the boy, Jeremiah Douglass, who was running out of air in addition to struggling toward the surface after a 140-foot dive. But then Highley himself ran out of air, he said, and passed out.

“Up to 50 or 60 feet, I was aware of what was going on,” said Highley, 32, a Long Beach building engineer. “The next thing I knew, I was being airlifted to Catalina.”

The bodies of Jeremiah Douglass, and his father, Darren, both of Glendora, were retrieved by rescuers near the wreck of a sunken ship, where the anchor of their excursion boat had become snagged. Both their air tanks were empty. The father, a dive master who was leading the trip, had jumped into the water to rescue his son when the youth failed to surface.