OTTAWA, Canada (12 Oct 2004) -- Despite a scuba instructor's rescue attempt, a 51-year-old man died yesterday while scouring a 19th-century shipwreck in the St. Lawrence River. Robert Connell of Toronto was exploring the wreck of the Lillie Parsons, a 39-metre-long schooner near Brockville, when he died. An autopsy has yet to be performed, but Alec Peirce, owner of Scuba 2000, the company Connell was diving with, said police told his instructors the man likely had a heart attack. "Unfortunately, when you're under water and you have a heart attack, you drown," he said. "He had good equipment, lots of air, he was experienced and he went unconscious — what else could it be?" | | Ron Irvine, a certified instructor, "rocketed" to the surface with Connell in his arms, but the man was dead even as they surfaced, Peirce said. |
