USA accident archives

Tragic Incident at Jackson Blue Springs: The Untold Story of Diver Benjamin Strelnick Deadly Mistake

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Name USA, Florida, Jackson Blue Springs Benjamin Strelnick There is no other feeling than being surrounded by walls underwater with one source of light, feeling the weight of your equipment and oxygen coursing through your body. Cave diving, the sport has been around for years, but even in 2023, there are […]

Tragic Incident at Beware Cave: The Story of Jesus Manriquez’s Dive

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver’s Full Name USA, Utah Jesus Manriquez Everyone knows that cave diving’s dangerous, but most people think the danger is reserved for certified divers who venture into caves no ordinary person ever would, right? Well, not always. Today’s story is an alarming example of how ordinary people with no cave diving experience can […]

Tragic Incident at Goss Canyon: The Fate of Master Sergeant Paul Hayden

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Names USA, California, Goss Canyon, La Crescenta, Angeles National Forest Air Force Master Sergeant Paul Hayden On the morning of September 17th, 2000, Air Force Master Sergeant Paul Hayden and his brother started walking into the old horizontal water well, a long mile up remote, little-known Goss Canyon in La Crescenta, […]

Tragic Incident at Diepolder 3 Cave: Loss of Diver Keith Hendricks

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Name Sandhill Scout Reservation, Hernando County, Florida, USA Keith Hendricks While diving again after a six-year break, a 51-year-old experienced diver realized that his dry suit was faulty at depth. His hope of survival relied on how fast his buddy could get him to the surface. Would he make it in […]

The Tragic Incident at Weeki Wachee Springs: The Ordeal of Marson Ashley K

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Names USA, Burkeville, Florida, Weeki Wachee Springs Marson Ashley K Cave diving is an inherently dangerous activity. All cave divers understand the risks of diving in underwater caves and accept them as an inescapable part of the activity they are so passionate about. An expensive hobby that comes at a steep […]

Tragedy in the Depths: The Wakulla-Leon Sinks Cave Incident and the Loss of Jim Miller

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Name USA, Florida, Wakulla-Leon Sinks cave Jim Miller Cave divers are famous for traveling all over the world for their dives, but there is one place that seems to attract them more than anywhere else: Florida in the United States. Florida is like the mecca of cave diving. That also, unfortunately, […]

Devil’s Eye Tragedy: The Unfortunate Fate of Diver Carlos Fonseca

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Name USA, Florida, Gilchrist County, Devil’s Eye Cave Carlos Fonseca The Devil’s Eye system is one of the most popular and frequently dived caves in the world, but only certified cavern or cave divers with dive lights are permitted to enter. If you are not careful enough, this cave can be […]

Tragic Incident at Apopka Lake: Remembering Kevin James Gokey and Daniel Eugene Smith

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Names USA, Florida, Apopka Spring Kevin James Gokey, Daniel Eugene Smith Today’s story is about two friends who went for a dive at Lake Apopka. They went over their heads and faced the consequences of one of the most dangerous cave diving scenarios – kicking up silt. This is the story […]

The Mysterious Death of Ryder Sturt: Unraveling the Secrets of Painted Cave

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Name USA, California, Santa Barbara, Painted Cave Ryder Sturt On November 5th, 2022, two recreational divers were exploring an underwater cave system off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. Near the bottom, the divers made a gruesome discovery—it was a human body. They immediately called the police, and rescue crews from […]

Tragic Death in Manatee Springs: The Dive That Ended in Disaster

Categories: Cave diving, North America diving accidents

Incident Location Diver Full Name USA, Florida, Manatee Springs Zhou Minn One of the most important rules of cave diving is to make yourself aware of the present conditions of the cave diving site before embarking on your journey. Ignoring this could result in life-threatening situations, as we’ll see in today’s story. The incident in […]