“Our thoughts and prayers go out to these families,” she wrote in an email.A scuba diving experience like no other can be experienced in the cenotes located in Yucatan, Mexico. She offered the department’s sympathies to the relatives of the two divers. When CNN inquired with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, asking whether the site might be closed, spokeswoman Susan Smith didn’t comment. WFTS reported some people have called for the area to be closed again while cave diving enthusiasts have said people know the risks and the site should be open for the people who have the training and experience. According to CNN affiliate WFLA, they were trying out diving equipment they received as presents. Their deaths appear to be the first since a father and son died at the Eagle’s Nest on Christmas 2013. The two divers were found more than 250 below the water’s surface. Some people may even freeze up and do what we call ‘white out.’” “You have a lack of judgment and lose some of your inhibitions. For the new comer, it’s nitrogen narcosis,” Walls told the Tampa-based station. “It’s called martini’s law for us old timers. He added that even skilled divers can be affected at dangerous depths. Petersburg Times, which said the area had been compared with Mount Everest because it is beautiful but difficult.ĭiving expert Chuck Walls told CNN affiliate WFTS that only highly trained divers should attempt to dive there. The area was off limits for divers from 1999 to 2003, according to the St. “Even with that experience things can go wrong, but as cave divers we all know the risks before we go.”Īccording to Kagan Schott, 125 feet below the surface, near the area known to divers as the Debris Cone, is a permanently posted sign with an image of the Grim Reaper along with the stern warning, “There’s nothing in this cave worth dying for! Do not go beyond this point.” “Certified cave divers train hard so that when issues arise they have the muscle memory and experience to deal with them,” Kagan Schott said. Kagan Schott also cautioned that training and experience is paramount before attempting a dive at Eagle’s Nest. “It’s like dropping down into a whole new world as you swim through giant passageways that have taken tens of thousands of years to form.” “Eagle’s Nest is an alluring cave and many divers aspire to dive there someday,” she said. Blakeley went back to the meeting spot every 30 minutes throughout the afternoon before calling police at 6 p.m.īecky Kagan Schott, an experienced cave diver and professional photographer who has dived Eagle’s Nest about 20 times in her career, said the cave is a destination for many divers. Sunday, but Peacock and Rittenmeyer failed to show. The third diver, Justin Blakeley, told authorities the three divers were supposed to meet at 3 p.m. Peacock and Rittenmeyer had come from Fort Lauderdale for a three-day dive at Eagle’s Nest, a famous dive spot near Weeki Wachee, located in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area, about 60 miles north of Tampa.īoth men were experienced divers who had both dived Eagle’s Nest several times, the sheriff said. Search and rescue divers found their bodies the next day in a “very dangerous and complex area of the cave system,” the sheriff’s office said. The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said Patrick Peacock and Chris Rittenmeyer went diving on Sunday afternoon with a third man, who reported the duo missing. Ten people, including two who were found Monday, have had fatal incidents inside the Eagle’s Nest cave dive area in Western Florida since 1981. The signs tell divers the area is dangerous.
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