JACKSON COUNTY, Florida (8 Mar 2007) -- Officials confirmed Tuesday the identity of the diver who died inside a spring cave at Blue Springs Recreational Area, as well as other details surrounding his death. Jackson County Sheriff John McDaniel said Harry Milliser, 48, of Dogwood Heights in Marianna, died of drowning Monday after becoming stuck in Jackson Blue, the spring cave that lies in close proximity to a recreational diving board inside the park. Milliser is survived by his wife and two daughters. He was the owner/operator of Air Services, where he designed and built automotive paint booths. According to McDaniel, Milliser had been a certfied open-water diver for over 20 years, but he did not have required certification for cave diving. Milliser had frequently dived at other caves, including Twin Caves and Hole-in-the-Wall at Merritt's Mill Pond in Marianna. "Cave diving is a trial enough when you do have the training and certification," said McDaniel, "When you do it without the certification, you're just asking for trouble. It's like flying a plane into the wild blue yonder without being trained to fly." McDaniel confirmed some of the details surrounding Milliser's death. He said that Milliser was diving with his friend, certified cave diver Gordon Smith of Marianna, when Milliser apparently became stuck. Smith surfaced and called for help and JCSO and local cave-diving expert Edd Sorenson responded within minutes. McDaniel said that the JCSO diving squad is not cave-certfiied, so Sorenson did a search inside the spring cave for the missing diver. Sorenson recovered Milliser's body four minutes into the search, approximately 600 ft. from the mouth of the cave, which lies about 80 to 90 feet from the surface. Milliser was no longer wearing his double tanks, which he probably removed in a state of panic, said McDaniel. An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was drowning. | | The most recent cave diving death in Florida is the third in three weeks. As for Milliser's diving partner Smith, whether or not he will face any charges has yet to be determined, pending investigation. A JCSO press release reported that Smith has been a diver for about 30 years and works at an area dive shop. McDaniel, who is a diver himself, said the longest part of the process of recovering Milliser's body was most likely Sorenson's ascent after finding him. Sorenson might have had to stop for decompression before exiting the water. A decompression stop is when a diver spends time at the end of his dive at a constant depth in shallow water. This is a measure to eliminate harmful gases that the body absorbs while diving. Not doing so could lead to decompression sickness, otherwise know as "the bends." McDaniel said that this is not the first diving fatality in Jackson County. "We've had divers all over this county drown, usually people who aren't cave certified. I'd say about eight to 12 people in the past 30 years," said McDaniel, "When you push your limits or experience level, you're putting your life on the line." SOURCE - Jackson County FloridanSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba ForumCDNN Related NewsFLORIDA - Cave diving death third in three weeksFLORIDA - Another cave diver dies in FloridaFLORIDA - Cave diver dies in Florida |
