A South Florida native who was scuba diving in the area last year is now suing Florida Power & Light saying no warning signs were around an intake pipe that sucked him in and took him on a terrifying ride.
Christopher Le Cun told our news partners, WPTV, that he was scuba diving on July 12 with friends and family off the coast of Hutchinson Island when they came across a yellow buoy near the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. Le Cun said they didn't see any warning signs, so they decided to investigate.
"I swam right up to this big structure and it looks like a building underwater. I felt a little bit of current. All of a sudden it got a little quicker and I said, 'this ain't right, this ain't right,'" he told WPTV. According to Le Cun’s friend, Robert Blake, the diver was sucked into the pipe and was gone.
The pipe is used to cool FP&L's nuclear reactors. It pulls in about 500,000 gallons of water a minute and is about 16 feet wide, according to WPTV.
The company disagrees about no warning signs in the area. The buoy has always read: "stay back 100 feet," a company spokesman told WPTV.
Blake said that on July 12 after Le Cun disappeared, he swam to the surface and began calling for help.
At that time Le Cun’s wife, Brittany, told WPTV, "All I remember doing was grabbing my son, holding him, crying and praying out loud."
Le Cun said, at this time, he was tumbling through the pipe unsure of where it would end.
"I kind of felt like I got sucked over a waterfall and just instantly complete darkness. I was getting tumbled around and around. I'm trying to hold onto my mask and my regulator. I finally get ahold of my light and I'm trying to look around. As far as you can see, it's just black," he said WPTV.
He finally saw fish and crystal-clear water and was pulled out by one of the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant employees, who was curious how he got there. "I'm yelling help, help and he says, 'How did you get in here?' And I said, 'I came through the pipe' and he says ... 'What,’” Le Cun added.
When WPTV asked about safety, FP&L issued a statement that read, “Nothing is more important than safety at our St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plants, which is a reason that we have a protective over the intake piping. The diver intentionally swam into one of the intake pipes after bypassing a piece of equipment to minimize the entry of objects.”
Read more at WPTV.
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