Saturday, October 12, 2002
Updated: October 13, 5:37 PM ET
Woman was trying to break record held by husband
Associated Press
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- A Frenchwoman
attempting to break the world free diving record drowned, initial
autopsy reports suggested Sunday.
On Saturday, Audrey Mestre was pulled up by scuba divers 9
minutes, 44 seconds after she sunk below the surface without
oxygen. Attached to a 200-pound weighted sled, Mestre plunged more
than 500 feet below the surface.
"We don't know exactly what happened,'' said Carlos Serra,
president of the Miami-based International Association of Free
Divers.
An initial autopsy conducted in Santo Domingo found drowning to
be the cause of death, but a final report could take weeks to be
released, he said.
"We believe something hit the sled,'' Serra said earlier.
"When she came out of the water she was foaming from the mouth and
bleeding.''
The 28-year-old Mestre reached her target depth of 561 feet near
La Romana, Serra said. But in order for it to be considered a
record, she needed to return to the surface safely, he said.
Jeff Blumenfeld, a spokesman for Mares, an Italian diving
equipment manufacturer that sponsored Mestre, said 13 scuba divers
monitored the dive for safety. Usually the diver descends and
ascends on a single breath. But when something appeared to go
wrong, Mestre was given oxygen on the ascent by one of the divers.
After the autopsy, her body was taken to a mortuary in Santo
Domingo, the capital. Serra said Mestre's parents were on their way
from Mexico, where they live, and would decide where she would be
buried.
On a free dive, the diver plunges to a great depth and comes
straight back to the surface. Decompression is not needed because
the diver has not breathed in any air during the dive.
Mestre was born in St. Denis, France, six miles north of Paris,
and lived in Miami with her Cuban husband, Francisco "Pipin''
Ferreras, also a free diver.
Serra said she was trying to break the "no limits'' dive world
record recognized by his association: 531½ feet achieved by
Ferreras, off Cozumel, Mexico in January 2000.
In another deep dive, Tanya Streeter reached a depth of 525 feet
in Turks and Caicos in August. Officials with the International
Association for the Development of Apnea, based in Switzerland,
said Streeter's dive broke men's and women's records for dives it
had administered.
But Serra said his association recognizes Ferreras' dive as the
men's world record.
He said Mestre had trained hard for Saturday's dive, in which
she was only supposed to be down for about three minutes.
On Oct. 4, Mestre plunged to 544.52 feet at the same spot. On
Wednesday, she also went to 561 feet in a practice dive off La
Romana, Blumenfeld said.
