ANCHORAGE, Alaska (27 Sep 2007) -- An Alaska SeaLife Center diver who died in Resurrection Bay after his tank ran out of air may have panicked while trying to remove his weight belt, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday. Matthew Myers, 44, died Tuesday near Fox Island about 5 miles from Seward while he and a dive master, Bob Hicks, were out on a training dive, part of a series that would have certified Myers as a scientific diver, said Tim Dillon, a SeaLife Center spokesman. Myers was certified as an open-water diver in 1982 and was certified an advanced diver in 1984, Dillon said. Becoming a scientific diver involves the same skills, with the added requirements of knowing how to collect samples while diving in certain conditions, among other things. The pair was alone underwater when Myers ran out of air and signaled to Hicks that he needed to surface, troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said. "There's a red flag right there," said Stephen Jewett, the University of Alaska's diving safety officer. "If he's truly out of air, then he can't inflate his buoyancy compensator. If he couldn't get his weight belt off, he's going to go back down." The men surfaced, but then Myers apparently began to panic, Ipsen said. Even for an experienced diver, some degree of panic is not uncommon, Jewett said. "Most people that have a fair amount of experience under their belts can grapple with that, but we just don't know exactly what happened," he said. Hicks switched their tanks so that Myers had the fuller one and asked Myers to take his weight belt off, Ipsen said. Myers for some reason was unable to do so. The pair began trying to swim to shore. Their boat was still anchored, Dillon said, but depending on their dive pattern, they might have surfaced closer to the shore than to the boat. When Myers went below the surface, Hicks thought he was again trying to remove the belt, Ipsen said. But Myers never came up. "(Hicks) couldn't go after Myers right away because he had the empty tank," Ipsen said. Hicks swam back out to the boat and radioed for help, Dillon said. Coast Guard and Seward Fire Department crews responded, along with SeaLife Center divers. They recovered Myers' body after about 90 minutes, Ipsen said. He was transported to Providence Hospital in Seward, where he was pronounced dead at about 2:15 p.m. His body was released to his family by the state medical examiner later that night, Ipsen said. | | Matt Myers signaled that he had run out of air. Dillon said the SeaLife Center is awaiting the results of the investigation before it comments on the specifics of what happened. A diving computer that Myers wore on the outing will be among the evidence examined, he said. The SeaLife Center has 25 regular divers who conduct about 100 open-water dives each year, Dillon said. Jewett, who works closely with the center, said he has known Hicks for years and called him a highly competent diver. Reached at his home Wednesday night, Hicks wouldn't comment, saying the accident was still too recent. Myers was finishing up a master's degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks' School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Dillon said, and he was working at the SeaLife Center as a marine mammal scientist. He had been employed there since 2001, Dillon said. "He was a very experienced diver," said Jessica Huebert, Myers' cousin. "I'm sure whoever was there was doing their best. I'm not blaming anyone, but this just seems kind of strange." Myers leaves behind a wife and two children, Huebert said. 
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