A scuba instructor died following an incident on the USNS General Hoyt S Vandenberg wreck off Key West, Florida on 22 November.
The man was identified as Nicholas Strazzulla, 50 of Inverness in Citrus County, Florida. He had been a paramedic since 2018, and had worked as an instructor with Floridivers since 2015.
According to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Strazzulla lost consciousness after descending to a depth of 45m. He was brought to the surface and back to the dive-boat, where CPR was applied.
“He was taken to Lower Keys Medical Centre on Stock Island, where he was pronounced dead,” stated the sheriff’s office, adding that post mortem examination results were pending.
The Vandenberg is a decommissioned 156m-long military missile-tracking vessel, deliberately sunk about seven miles south of Key West in 2009. The largest artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, it stands upright off the seabed at around 45m.
Strazzulla’s is the fifth diver death on the wreck since 2021, including one man, Tommy Falkenberry, who went missing at the site in 2023.
