Diver dies at Roaring River State Park, part of the explorative team KISS Rebreathers

BARRY COUNTY, Mo. (ROARING RIVER STATE PARK) – Friday afternoon Cpl Sam Carpenter of the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirms with KOAM’s Shannon Becker a diver, from the exploration group KISS Rebreathers Divers, died while staging equipment for a deeper dive in days to come.

“They started their dive today around 11:30 a.m. this event happened just before noon. The divers were in about 190 feet of water.”

| BREAKING RELATED >> The deceased diver, Eric Hahn of KISS Rebreathers, talked to KOAM’s Amber Jenkins in this report during their Sept 2022 dives

He tells us preliminary information is that it was an equipment malfunction. However it could have been a medical issue. The patrol will take possession of the dive equipment as part of the death investigation. An autopsy is scheduled for sometime next week.

The KISS Rebreathers Team made recovery of the body later Friday afternoon shortly before 4:30 p.m. under the advisory of MSHP investigators on the scene.

“They dive once a month there, it takes them three days to do a dive since it is so technical.  So today they were staging equipment,” Cpl Carpenter says.

190 feet isn’t the deepest they have been in the spring. Divers made it to a depth of 472 feet, believed to be the deepest anyone has ever gone in a cave in the United States.

Eric Hahn, 27, Charlottesville, Va., was pronounced at the scene. Next of kin have been notified.

| BREAKING RELATED >> Roaring River dive team discovers underwater room Nov 2021

KOAM’s Amber Jenkins talked to the late Eric Hahn just last month in Cassville in a report highlighting the piece of equipment which allows for such deep exploration of the spring.

The team gets the name from a piece of equipment invented by the lead diver of the team who modified the team’s rebreathers to be recyclable, smaller, and last longer on deep dives. “And with this unique configuration of a rebreather, it allows us to side mount our scuba tanks where we wear the scuba tanks on our size. And what that does is it makes our body profile very narrow so that we can fit through these tight restrictions,” the late Eric Hahn stated in our KOAM News Now report.

It is unknown if the monthly dives will continue at the spring.  The team has been diving here for a few years.  Since it is a state park they have certain permissions from the state of Missouri.

This is a breaking news story. Stay with Joplin News First on KOAM News Now as we continue to learn more. Scroll below and sign up for our JLNews email alerts so you don’t miss an article.

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