A postmortem examination will be carried out today to determine the cause of death of an English woman who had just completed a dive off the coast in Co Kerry.
This was one of two incidents in which divers got into difficulties in separate areas of the county yesterday. In the south of the county two divers were airlifted to a recompression chamber in Galway suffering from "the bends".
The dead woman was in her 40s, it is understood. She was part of a dive team off the Maharees, north of Castlegregory in the Brandon Bay area of the Dingle peninsula, and she had been on a diving holiday in the area with her family and had some experience.
The region is regarded as having some of the best diving in Europe and the sunny weather yesterday attracted a large number of divers and water sports enthusiasts to the area.
Her husband and teenage son were among the eight-member dive team and they had just completed their dive at about 3 pm. All had surfaced.
It is understood the woman had signalled to the dive boat, which was close by and on its way towards her when she suddenly went down. She would have been low on oxygen as she had completed her dive.
Frantic efforts were made to follow her. A member of another dive team nearby brought her up within minutes. However, it appears she died at the scene.
It is not suspected she suffered from decompression sickness, known as "the bends". Her body was brought to Kerry General Hospital, where a postmortem will be carried out today.
Supt Martin McCarthy, who was at the scene yesterday, said gardaí were investigating. The woman's name was not being released last night, he said.
Meanwhile, two divers from a Dublin diving club were airlifted to the recompression chamber at University College Hospital Galway after displaying signs of "the bends" while diving off Valentia Island yesterday. The nearby Valentia Coast Guard tasked the Shannon-based Sikorsky rescue helicopter after the 35-year-old man surfaced near Portmagee showing severe signs of "the bends". A woman was also transferred but she was showing milder signs. It is suspected they surfaced too quickly.
A search also got under way yesterday for a missing child on Banna Strand, north of Tralee. The boy was missing for up to two hours before being found on the beach by his father.