Man dies after diving the Vandenberg wreck off Key West, deputies say
A 50-year-old Tamarac man died Tuesday morning after diving the Vandenberg wreck off Key West, law officers said.
Barry Beckett was diving with Southpoint Divers aboard a dive boat called the Phoenix, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
He returned to the boat after a dive and stopped breathing while aboard the boat, said Adam Linhardt, the sheriff’s office spokesman.
The crew started CPR and Beckett was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West, where he was pronounced dead at 10:58 a.m.
Foul play is not suspected and autopsy reports are pending, Linhardt said.
The popular Vandenberg wreck is about seven miles off Key West.
The 523-foot decommissioned military missile-tracking ship named after Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg was intentionally sunk in May 2009 and acts as an artificial reef.
The death comes two days after a 25-year-old woman from Melrose, Massachusetts, was pulled from the water while snorkeling at Bahia Honda State Park in the Lower Keys.
Katherine Boukharov was pronounced dead Sunday at Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon, police said.
In March, the body of 50-year-old Jordan Fisher, of Rockport, Texas, was found a day after she disappeared while diving the Vandenberg.
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 5:18 PM.
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