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Legendary Diver Carl Spencer dies
of DCS while filming Britannic

One of the world's top divers, Carl Spencer, died May 24th in a dive accident while helping film a movie about the Britannic, the sister ship of the Titanic.

Spencer was diving on the ship when it was reported that he released an emergency signal and made an emergency ascent. He suffered from Decompressions Sickness and did not recover. The wreck is in 300 feet of water and it was reported that Spencer was serving as a safety diver for the film crew at the time of the accident. This dive is typically a four hour dive with two hours in decompression, mostly at the 19-foot mark. He bypassed all decompression stops on his emergency ascent.

He was 37 and had many accomplishments, including his latest mission for the Britannic Foundation, an organization to help preserve the ship. He was working with the National Geographic Society, filming the Britannic as part of the 17-man crew off the island of Kea in the Aegean Sea.

The Britannic was sunk while it was on a mission to provide medical help as a hospital ship in 1916 during WWI. The Britannic was located in 1975 off the coast of Greece. The Titanic sunk in 1912 on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic. Spencer also was part of a dive expedition to the Titanic led by James Cameron.

The dive legend participated in medical trials and decompression projects at Duke University. He participated in other medical trials at the Split University School of Medicine, Split, Croatia.

He was a well-known speaker on the subject of diving technologies as co-founder of the conference EuroTek.

His hobbies were listed as racing dirt bikes and flying helicopters. He left behind his young son and daughter, and wife, Victoria where they lived together in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England.

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