Teen Student Diver Dies During Underwater Class On Buck Island, VIPD Says

John McCarthyPosted oninAt VIFreep, Breaking News, Police News, St. Thomas News, Tourism News1 Comment

CHARLOTTE AMALIE —  A teen-age student diver near St. Thomas drowned during an underwater class on Saturday morning, Virgin Islands Police said.

The unidentified 16-year-old was attending a beginners class on Buck Island, St. Thomas when he experienced a medical issue at 10:30 a.m., VIPD Communications Director Glen Dratte said today.

The medical issue caused the victim to “become unresponsive: during the dive and he was pulled aboard the boat for emergency treatment, according to Dratte.

Despite CPR being administered to the minor, he did not respond to treatment by 10:57 a.m., the VIPD spokesman said.

“Rescue officers met with a dive boat at Yacht Haven Grande, who advised that an individual partaking in a diving excursion had gotten in to distress while underwater, and became unresponsive.,” St. Thomas Rescue said on Facebook.

John McCarthy

John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.