Authorities on Saturday recovered the bodies of two divers from a sunken U.S. military ship off the Florida Keys.
The bodies of Jonathan Walsweer, 38, and Scott Stanley, whose age was not known, had been trapped in the USS Spiegel Grove, authorities said. The body of a third diver, Kevin Coughlin, 51, was recovered Friday.
The men, all from New Jersey, were exploring the wreck Friday and attempting to venture inside, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
It was not immediately clear how they died. The divers did not take enough tanks, did not have a dive plan and they did not have dive reels with them to show them the way out of the wreck, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
A fourth diver, Howard Spralter, also from New Jersey and diving with the men, did not go inside the vessel. He surfaced safely after he started to run out of air and alerted others that the men had not emerged, authorities said.
The USS Spiegel Grove serves as an artificial reef, and is one of the most popular diving spots Florida Keys. The retired 510-foot ship prematurely sank and rolled over May 17, 2002.