Technical diver identified
A Las Vegas man who died this week after diving in an area of a submerged flying boat that crashed in Lake Mead in 1949 has been identified as Michael Lawrence Anderson.
Anderson, 40, died about 3 p.m. Sunday after rangers with the National Park Service could not save his life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The Clark County coroner’s office hadn’t determined Anderson’s cause of death Monday afternoon, but it was believed that he had a problem with his air supply.
Anderson was doing a technical dive with three other Las Vegas men. Technical divers typically dive in water more than 130 feet deep. They use breathing gas mixtures other than regular air and must ascend slowly with decompression stops, said Roxanne Dey, a spokeswoman for Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
The park service is investigating Anderson’s death, which was the first at the popular diving site in the Boulder Basin part of the lake.
The Navy flying boat was converted for civilian use when it took off for a test flight from the Boulder City Airport on Oct. 24, 1949. Failing landing gear caused the boat to flip, burn and sink when it was making a test landing.