USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) - Diving Deaths

Diving Deaths

On August 17, 2006, LT Jessica Hill and PO2 Stephen Duque died of unspecified causes during diving operations in the Arctic Ocean. The circumstances of the accident are under investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard. The coast guard has conducted simultaneous safety and administrative investigations the results of which were made public in January 2007 (USCG Commandant's Statement, Final Action Memorandum) along with a Final Decision Letter dated 23 August, 2007.

Initial press reports indicated that the divers were conducting an inspection of the rudder, a routine operation, at the time of the accident; but later reports state that the two were doing a cold-water training dive near the bow of the ship. The dive was reported to have been planned for a maximum depth of 20 feet (6 m). Lieutenant Hill's father, citing autopsy reports, has indicated that his daughter actually reached a depth of near 200 feet in what he described as an out of control descent. The divers were tended by unqualified and poorly-instructed personnel on the surface, none of whom were familiar with cold water diving or scuba diving in general. It is not clear why they extended so much line to the divers. By the time the two could be pulled to the surface, gas reserves were emptied and neither diver could be revived.

On August 30, commanding officer Captain Douglas G. Russell was temporarily relieved of command by Vice Admiral Charles Wuster citing a "loss of confidence" in Russell's ability to command. The relief was later made permanent by Admiral Thad Allen, Coast Guard Commandant. Russell was initially replaced by Captain Daniel K. Oliver, the previous HEALY commanding officer who Russell had relieved only two months earlier. Oliver returned to his regular staff job a short time later, when Captain Ted Lindstrom was named the new commanding officer. Lindstom has commanded four previous coast guard cutters, and was chief of response for the coast guard's 13th District in Seattle, Washington prior to returning to sea.