Scuba Diver Found Dead Inside Cave

A 38-year-old Arizona man drowned in 4 feet of water Sunday after he went scuba diving in an abandoned well shaft and became entangled in debris in a narrow cave, a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

A rescue diver pulled the body of the man from the well around 5:45 p.m. following a search-and-rescue mission that began after the victim’s brother reported him missing around 1:20 p.m.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Hartshorne declined to release the dead man’s identity, but said he was a member of an Air Force paramedic rescue team who was in La Crescenta to celebrate his father’s birthday.

The well--tucked into a rugged and remote area of canyons and hills--is on private property, two miles north of the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station, Hartshorne said. The well was drilled in 1917 but is not being used by the local water agency.

In addition to difficulties with the landscape and size of the cave, rescue crews had to battle wilting triple-digit temperatures.

“The outcome was not what we were hoping for,” Hartshorne said. “This is the first any of us have heard of an incident like this in that cave.”

Authorities say the victim and his brother set out for the dive around 11 a.m. To get to water, they first had to crawl 50 feet through a dark, narrow tunnel before reaching a larger cavern, Hartshorne said.

Another 30 feet down a slight vertical grade was an area filled with water. It stretched for several hundred feet and the divers used a rope to anchor them to the mouth of the cavern.

Before he separated from his brother, the victim said he had two hours worth of air and to summon help if he did not resurface, sheriff’s officials said.

When his brother was not at the end of the rope, the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station was notified.

A diver with the sheriff’s emergency services detail arrived at the scene about 3:45 p.m. The body was not found until two hours later, Sheriff’s Sgt. Walter Wiley said.

Water rescue teams with both the Los Angeles city and county Fire Departments were contacted as well, sheriff’s officials said.

Despite the diver’s limited supply of air, Hartshorne said rescuers held out hope the victim could find air pockets, enabling him to breathe until rescuers arrived.

When a rescue diver went down into the cave, however, the victim was found tangled in a narrow water-filled tunnel.

“There were a lot of cave-ins in that cavern over the years, and we don’t know whether he got trapped or it was a new cave-in,” Hartshorne said.

Making the incident all the more unusual was that the divers were very experienced, Hartshorne said.

“These weren’t amateurs or weekend divers,” he said. “They were highly experienced and trained.”

In addition, he added, the divers were not lacking for equipment--they were carrying lighting and computer-controlled diving gear that monitored depth and the rate of oxygen use.

“One of our divers described [the equipment] as similar to a ‘black box’ in an airplane,” Hartshorne said. “Now that information can be useful in the investigation into the cause of death.”

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Correspondent Grace E. Jang contributed to this report.