The search for a missing diver 20km off Cape Clear is due to resume this morning after search operations yesterday yielded no results.
German diver Reinhardt Teschke (54) is missing after he failed to resurface from a 90m dive on the wreck of a British merchant ship, the Minnehaha, on Tuesday evening. Search authorities were reviewing a request by another member of Mr Teschke's three- man team to dive at the site yesterday. Colin Barnes, skipper of the team's charter boat the Holly Jo out of Castletownshend, Co Cork, said conditions were near perfect yesterday.
"We have a diver ready and willing to go down but the dive is currently delayed. It's a prolonged dive that takes five to six minutes to descend, allowing for 20 minutes at the bottom and two hours to come back up again in order to avoid the bends," Mr Barnes said. The Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115 completed an air search of the area shortly before lunchtime yesterday. A spokesman at Valentia Coast Guard station said the decision to allow a dive on the wreck was under review.