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Coast Guard searching for missing diver

News Channel 8 image by MICHAEL EGGER

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching the Gulf for a diver who disappeared about 18 due miles due west of Anna Maria Island.

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TBO.com Staff Report

Published: July 3, 2009

Updated: 07/03/2009 10:00 pm

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching the Gulf for a diver who disappeared about 18 miles due west of Anna Maria Island.

Darren Rordan, 31, was spear fishing with three friends aboard the Malikot, a 22-foot vessel, and was due to return to the boat at 10:45 a.m., according to the Coast Guard. The friends called for help when he failed to show at the agreed-upon time.

The four launched their boat earlier today from the ramp at Fort Desoto Park in Pinellas County.
An HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, a 41-foot utility boat from Station Cortez, and the St. Petersburg-based Coast Guard cutter Alligator, an 87-foot patrol boat, are searching the area for Rordan, the Coast Guard said.

A Coast Guard dispatcher said no equipment or other signs of the diver have been found, and the search will continue throughout the night. Rordan reportedly was wearing a white dive top.

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