Woman dies in diving accident near Jupiter Inlet

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responded to an open-water emergency near the Jupiter Inlet on Saturday morning.

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Officials say an unknown problem caused a diver to panic.

That woman went underwater, and when she didn’t resurface, she was pulled back onto the boat unconscious and rushed to shore.

The woman was taken to a local hospital, where she later died.

Foul play is not suspected.

Daniel Lomas was out on the water that day and saw the emergency response from a distance.

“Whether you’re free diving or if you’re scuba, they all come with their pros and cons,” he said. “They all come with different levels of risk for different things.”

As an experienced diver and shark safety guide, Lomas said every dive requires careful planning and an honest assessment of a person’s health.

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“As you get deeper and deeper, certain things change about the dive, especially gas laws and how your body is dealing with those gases,” he said. “And that’s when you have to really make sure that that person is physically fit to do that dive.”

He added that equipment must be thoroughly checked before entering the water.

“Assembling the equipment, making sure that your regulators work, making sure that there’s no sticking or corrosion or anything that might be affecting those systems,” said Lomas.

He says, like with any sport, diving carries risks but proper training and safety procedures can reduce them.

“If you do everything by the book, I don’t think there’s anything that can really go wrong, especially when you’re down there with over divers, other educated divers,” said Lomas.

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