31-year-old Jason Dean from the Wirral was reported lost after becoming separated from his buddy during a dive at Dorothea Quarry, N Wales on Saturday 20 March.

The man was diving at Dorothea as part of a group of five. Unconfirmed reports from eye witnesses at the scene indicate that the diver was at 60m, using a single cylinder of air, when the problem occurred.

The lost diver's buddy came to the surface and raised the alarm.

The emergency services were called, and the buddy was taken for to hospital for precautionary medical treatment. He was later released, with no injury. Divers on the scene searched for any sign of the lost man, without success. The police underwater search team used a remotely operated vehicle to locate and recover Dean's body on Sunday 21 March.

Dean is the 21st diver to die at Dorothea quarry in the last ten years.

The quarry has been at the centre of controversy over diver deaths for a number of years. It is a completely unregulated site, with no facilities, and local people have made a variety of attempts to deter divers from visiting the site, for example blocking entrances with large boulders and shooting the buoys attached to downlines put in by divers.

The site's owner, Glynn Small, has specifically requested divers not to use the quarry and has put the site up for sale. This latest death is likely to prompt renewed calls from the North Wales police and local MP to ban diving at the site.


Associated links
Dorothea Quarry - incident pit?

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