SEATTLE - Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard released a scathing report on an accident that killed two Seattle-based divers last summer.

Lt. Jessica Hill and Petty Officer Steven Duque died in a diving accident during a scientific cruise to the Arctic Ocean.

According to the report on the fatal training dive just off the Coast Guard Ice Breaker Healy, multiple regulations were violated that contributed to the deaths of the two divers, including: Untrained personnel put in charge, faulty equipment used, and the presence of alcohol.

The report summed it up this way.  "As Coast Guardsmen, we accept the risk, but we do not accept preventable loss."

What happened to Hill and Duque was clearly preventable.

"It is the mission area that had serious shortcomings, that contributed to the accident, there's no doubt about that," said Vice Adm. Charles Wurster, Coast Guard Pacific Area Commander.

The accident happened on Aug. 17, 2006, but the water temperature north of Barrow Alaska was only 29 degrees. Cold weather makes diving even more hazardous. 

When Hill and Duque entered the water, they were tethered to lines handled at the surface.

They were only supposed to go down 20 feet for 20 minutes.

But the two divers had in their pockets lead weights they couldn't get rid of, and they went into free fall. Single jerks on the line signaling "stop" were misinterpreted by unqualified dive tenders standing on the ice who paid out more line. Hill descended to 187 feet, Duque more than 200.   By the time it was recognized something was wrong and the two were pulled up, they were already dead.

Both tanks were empty, but the exact cause of death is hard to pin down.

"They could have had an air embolism from expanding air in their lungs, as they were brought up," explained Health and Safety Director, Rear Admiral Paul Higgins, M.D. "And if they were unconscious and could not exhale that air or keep their airway open, the air could have been forced into their circulatory system."

At the moment, the Healy is in a Seattle dry dock.

The captain was relieved of command upon the vessel's return last summer. As of yesterday, the ship's three top officers at the time have now received potentially career-ending letters of reprimand.

The bottom line is the divers never should have been in the water to begin with. And the Coast Guard vows, this kind of accident will never happen again.

The report also faults Lt. Hill, saying her dive qualifications for cold water were not current - and she could not lead a dive training exercise, while she was one of the divers in the water.