DORSET, UK (8 Apr 2003) -- A desperate rescue operation for a teenager who failed to surface after diving on a wreck off Lyme Regis has been called off. After more than 11 dramatic hours, Portland Coastguard decided to stop the search for Jemma Stevens from Honiton, Devon, who went missing on Sunday morning. The 19-year-old was diving with two other people from the Lyme Bay Diving Club on a wreck - The Pomeranian, a liner torpedoed in 1918. The crew from the boat The Quiet Moment lost contact with the teenager as she was surfacing shortly after 8.30am. Last night a spokesman for the diving club, which is registered with the Sub-Aqua Association, based in Liverpool, said members were in deep shock. He added: "The bereavement is going on. Over the next days we shall try to assess what went wrong. At the moment nobody knows. We can't pass any judgments or do anything until the facts are known. "The Marine Authority is telling everybody what to do. Until then we can't make any further comments or discuss further details. More information will be given out at an inquest, if there is going to be one." The Sub-Aqua Association declined to comment. The family of the teenager also declined to make any comments regarding the incident, but there was a sombre atmosphere on the quiet street in Honiton where Jemma lived. On Sunday a major rescue operation was launched immediately after Portland Coastguard received an emergency call from the crew of the diving boat. The search carried on yesterday, but was called off in the afternoon. | | The Lyme Regis inshore lifeboat took part in an 11-hour search for the diver, joining the Weymouth lifeboat. Also, at the request of the Coastguard, two helicopters were scrambled - the Portland-based Whiskey Bravo and another from RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall. However, as the Portland helicopter had to attend another incident involving a missing climber, the India Juliet from Lee-on-Solent, near Southampton, was scrambled instead. A spokesman for the RNLI in Lyme Regis said: "The lifeboat was launched just after nine in the morning and remained at sea - with only two brief returns to shore to change crews and to refuel - until stood down by the Coastguard Search and Rescue Centre, Portland as dusk fell, but nothing had been found. "The Lyme Regis lifeboat carried a crew of four and consumed 130 gallons of fuel during the operation." A spokesman for Portland Coastguard said the weather conditions were "very good" for a rescue operation. "There was no wind, the visibility was good and there was no swell in the water," he said. "We covered four different search areas and found nothing." But Douglas Lanfear, skipper of a chartered vessel which helped with the search, said the crews involved in the operation were struggling with high tides. SOURCE - Western Morning News |
