Man killed in diving accident

HOPE — The body of a Spokane man who jumped off the cliffs at Kilroy Bay early Saturday afternoon and failed to resurface has been found.

The identity of the 31-year-old man, who was in town with friends, is being withheld pending the notification of family.

Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said the man was swimming with friends about 2:30 p.m. when he jumped off the cliff and landed feet first in the waters of Lake Pend Oreille. When he failed to resurface, friends call the sheriff’s office, and its marine patrol and dive teams began an immediate search for the man.

The man’s body was located less 20 feet from shore at a depth of about 140 feet.

“This is truly a tragedy,” Wheeler said of the accident.

Because crews knew where the man jumped into the lake, they were able to find his body relatively quickly and were able to bring it to the surface before dark.

While divers normally can only safely descend to a depth of 130 feet, the sheriff’s office dive team made the decision to descend the extra distance to retrieve the man’s body and bring it to the surface.

“Our dive team did an incredible job under dangerous conditions and circumstances to recover the victim,” Wheeler said.

The area around Kilroy Bay where the accident took place is a rocky terrain with a sheer, rocky cliff abutting the lake. Sheriff’s office personnel used a range finder to measure the distance of the jump and estimate the man jumped from a height of 150 to 160 feet.

The man’s body is being sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of depth and an investigation into the accident is ongoing.