Two hospitalized after Lake Mead diving accident

Two National Park Service divers were sent to the hospital, one in critical condition, after an accident 120 feet beneath the surface of Lake Mead on Sunday.

Christie Vanover, spokeswoman for Lake Mead National Recreation Area, said a man and a woman from the park service's Denver-based Submerged Resources Center were on a training dive in the lake's Boulder Basin when something appeared to go wrong with the man's equipment.

The two made an emergency ascent to the surface, where the man had to be resuscitated before being taken by helicopter to University Medical Center.

He was released from the hospital on Friday, Vanover said. The woman was taken to UMC after the accident but was released later the same day.

Vanover said privacy laws prohibit her from identifying the divers or discussing their injuries, but she said they are not members of the staff at Lake Mead.

She said the two were training to assist with a camera crew that was granted a permit for an upcoming film shoot at the deepwater resting place of a B-29 bomber, which crashed and sank in the lake's Overton Arm in 1948.

Vanover said the first sign of trouble was the sight of air bubbles in the water near one of the divers. Both were using closed-circuit rebreathers that recycle air and do not produce bubbles.

Park service dive operations at the lake have been suspended while the incident is investigated. No park employees will be allowed to dive until the review is complete, most likely within the next week or so, Vanover said.

Serious diving accidents are uncommon but not unheard of at Lake Mead. Rangers respond to fatal diving accidents about once every two years or so, Vanover said. On Sept. 29, Utah dive instructor Xavier Fleuranceau, 48, died while diving at a depth of about 350 feet in one of the deepest parts of the lake.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.