Five hundred miles north of Alaska, a group of shipmates from the Coast Guard cutter Healy tossed a football on the blue-and-white, diamond-hard Arctic ice.
Others snapped panoramic photos and took walks during the two-hour break, stretching their legs after a month aboard the 420-foot icebreaker. Lt. Jessica Hill and Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque seized the chance for a training dive and slipped into a patch of open water near the Healy's bow. A team held ropes attached to the divers, lest they become disoriented under the ice.
Several research scientists watched from the deck. But no one knows what happened on the other end of those ropes on that cold, brilliant summer day — except that both divers died. The Coast Guard has started two investigations, relieved the Healy's captain, pulled all diving equipment off the ship and suspended all polar diving. But nothing has been said about what might have killed Hill, 31, and Duque, 22, on Aug. 17, or when the investigations will conclude. "We can get no word whatsoever, and that's tough," Hill's father, William Hill Jr., said. "We can't even get the death certificates."
The Healy was on a research mission backed by the National Science Foundation. On board were three dozen scientists collecting data that would help them map the ocean floor and study the Earth's crust to better understand earthquakes, tsunamis and plate tectonics. Hill, the ship's marine science officer and a native of St. Augustine, Fla., was an experienced civilian diver before she joined the Coast Guard about four years ago. Her shipmates described her as a fun-loving officer who, during a trip to the North Pole last year, posed on the ice in a bikini by a red and white striped pole.
Duque, whose responsibilities included keeping the Healy's decks in order, operating machinery and driving launch boats, was from Miami. Colleagues said he was exceedingly professional and inspired others to take their jobs seriously. Both attended the Navy's dive school, which is required of all Coast Guard divers. The pair had been underwater for about 10 minutes, estimated Harm Van Avendonk, a University of Texas geophysics researcher, and something appeared to be wrong. "I saw people from the bow looking intently down on the ice, and I sensed immediately that they didn't look relaxed," he said.
"It was taking a long time for the divers to reappear." In a blur, the crew's training took over, several witnesses said. The divers were pulled up by the ropes. Blankets and stretchers were rushed onto the ice, and EMTs immediately began performing CPR. The divers were carried to the ship's sick bay, where they were pronounced dead roughly two hours after the dive.
by www.thesupernaturalworld.co.uk
Others snapped panoramic photos and took walks during the two-hour break, stretching their legs after a month aboard the 420-foot icebreaker. Lt. Jessica Hill and Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque seized the chance for a training dive and slipped into a patch of open water near the Healy's bow. A team held ropes attached to the divers, lest they become disoriented under the ice.
Several research scientists watched from the deck. But no one knows what happened on the other end of those ropes on that cold, brilliant summer day — except that both divers died. The Coast Guard has started two investigations, relieved the Healy's captain, pulled all diving equipment off the ship and suspended all polar diving. But nothing has been said about what might have killed Hill, 31, and Duque, 22, on Aug. 17, or when the investigations will conclude. "We can get no word whatsoever, and that's tough," Hill's father, William Hill Jr., said. "We can't even get the death certificates."
The Healy was on a research mission backed by the National Science Foundation. On board were three dozen scientists collecting data that would help them map the ocean floor and study the Earth's crust to better understand earthquakes, tsunamis and plate tectonics. Hill, the ship's marine science officer and a native of St. Augustine, Fla., was an experienced civilian diver before she joined the Coast Guard about four years ago. Her shipmates described her as a fun-loving officer who, during a trip to the North Pole last year, posed on the ice in a bikini by a red and white striped pole.
Duque, whose responsibilities included keeping the Healy's decks in order, operating machinery and driving launch boats, was from Miami. Colleagues said he was exceedingly professional and inspired others to take their jobs seriously. Both attended the Navy's dive school, which is required of all Coast Guard divers. The pair had been underwater for about 10 minutes, estimated Harm Van Avendonk, a University of Texas geophysics researcher, and something appeared to be wrong. "I saw people from the bow looking intently down on the ice, and I sensed immediately that they didn't look relaxed," he said.
"It was taking a long time for the divers to reappear." In a blur, the crew's training took over, several witnesses said. The divers were pulled up by the ropes. Blankets and stretchers were rushed onto the ice, and EMTs immediately began performing CPR. The divers were carried to the ship's sick bay, where they were pronounced dead roughly two hours after the dive.
by www.thesupernaturalworld.co.uk
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