Man Drowns in Dive at Old Well

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

A rescue diver pulled the body from the well about 5:45 p.m. after a search and rescue mission that began when the victim’s brother walked into the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station about 1:20 p.m. and reported him missing.

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

The well, in a rugged, 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 was not being used.

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

Another 30 feet down a slight 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 of air.

When he noticed his brother was not at the end of the rope, deputies were notified.

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Times Community News correspondent Grace E. Jang contributed to this report.