NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Coast Guard members and the Sheriff's Office dive recovery team searched waters off Ponce de Leon Inlet on Thursday for a missing scuba diver.
The search was called off about 5 p.m. with no sign of the diver, Volusia County sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said.
The victim, identified by the Sheriff's Office as Michael Pye, 58, of Detroit was diving at 11 a.m. on an old shipwreck about 11 miles east of the inlet, Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr said.
"He was seen going down, but has not come up," the spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard District 7 office in Jacksonville said by telephone.
Pye was diving with nine divers who left on the Sea Dog from New Smyrna Beach early Thursday, officials said.
The group anchored on top of an old shipwreck, and divers entered the water. Pye returned to the boat when he couldn't catch his breath and later resumed his dive, Davidson said.
Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Whittet, dive team supervisor, said his crew of nine searched the waters between 75 and 85 feet deep to see if Pye was trapped in the wreck, then conducted a line search with the current for another half-mile before running out of air.
Officials planned to re-evaluate their efforts as darkness fell Thursday. Warr said the approach of Hurricane Charley was also a threat to searchers.
