Blue Hole Belize, Missing Diver

[n***@gmail.com]

Lee, all I can tell you is what you see in the thread that I started.
Dr. Delgado was with the group (and his two teenage sons) when the ascent
began. He was still with the group at approx 50' and gone at 20'. They
have not been able to locate the body.
There have been approximately 4-5 divers lost in the Blue Hole since it's
discovery.
I'm surprised that there has been nothing in the Florida papers.
Apparently, Dr. Delgado was well respected and reasonably well-known.

Michael or Chilly, my wife informed me about a diver missing from a Blue
Hole a while back, but this is the first confirmation I've seen or heard.
Nothing on the news, nothing in the paper and, completely surprising,
nothing on Techdiver. Can either of you point me to more information?
Leeif it has to be deactivated and make every wire red.

He definitely was.. I just came across this forum.. I am actually dr ruben delgados niece.. He was found but his body was never recovered due to the circumstances of the depth of the hole. He was a very well known doctor and a great man overall.

[-hh]

Post by n***@gmail.com

Lee, all I can tell you is what you see in the thread
that I started.
Dr. Delgado was with the group (and his two teenage sons)
when the ascent began. He was still with the group at
approx 50' and gone at 20'. They have not been able to
locate the body.
There have been approximately 4-5 divers lost in the
Blue Hole since it's discovery.
I'm surprised that there has been nothing in the Florida papers.
Apparently, Dr. Delgado was well respected and reasonably well-known.

...
He definitely was.. I just came across this forum.. I am
actually dr ruben delgados niece.. He was found but his body
was never recovered due to the circumstances of the depth of
the hole. He was a very well known doctor and a great man overall.

Good to hear that he was found, as this provides some closure
for the family. IIRC, its also helpful for a more timely
determination on life insurance polices (vs a "disappearance").

Insofar as just what happened, I doubt that there's been
much change in information or insight.

In rereading the thread (which I see I participated in
with an older email account), it seems that the general
speculation was on an out-of-practice diver, and/or one
who may have been taken on a guided dive which was beyond
their skill level.

This sort of speculation was pretty common twenty years ago,
and these suspected causes were based on what was happening
within the industry, namely the rise in technical diving,
along with a decline in the quality/scope of the recreational
dive training standards.

While these assumptions are that the diver was lost while
deep, the statements that the deceased had made it back
to the safety stop does seem to imply otherwise.

However, I'd be a bit cynical of that "safety stop" claim
(sadly), because a dive operator's staff member wouldn't
want to admit to any degree of culpability. This then
gets into the question of specifically just who saw what
when and their reliability, for mistaken identity can
be quite easy (everyone's wearing a black wetsuit/etc).

If this had happened today, the general ubiquity of
UW video cameras could provide more information on
what happened when, but but 20 years ago, UW video was
uncommon, so its unlikely that any recordings exist;
this incident's causes will probably remain a mystery.

Sorry again for your family's loss.


-hh