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05.29 pm, Friday June 17 2011

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LIVE AT 5:25pm: News preview from Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland

Diver became disoriented, suffocated: friend

18:02 AEST Tue Mar 1 2011

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By ninemsn staff with AAP

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Agnes Milowka died on Sunday while exploring caves. (James Axford)

Agnes Milowka believed cave diving was the essence of exploration. (Flickr)

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A woman who died while diving in South Australia's Tank Cave ran out of air and suffocated after becoming disoriented, according to a fellow diver.

Dr Richard Harris is part of a team of divers trying to retrieve Agnes Milowka's body from the cave near Mt Gambier and was also a close friend of the 29-year-old, Adelaide Now reports.

"It looks like she has remained very calm right to the very last breath while she has been working to extricate herself", Dr Harris said.

Dr Harris, who described Ms Wilowka as an "aggressive diver," said it was difficult to get through the narrow parts of the cave because there was low visibility.

"She can't turn very quickly, she can't see anything and she has been unable to work out the way to get out of the cave and she has run out of air," he said.

Cave divers are widening underwater channels so they can begin the slow process of retrieving the Ms Milowka's body after she died on Sunday.

She was found dead after becoming separated from her diving buddy on Sunday in the 8km-long channel system.

Tank Cave is one of Australia's longest underwater caves.

Police and cave divers spent Tuesday trying to clear and widen the channels to make it easier to retrieve her body, which is 600 metres from the sink hole entrance.

Superintendent Trevor Twilley says three teams of two divers each have been in the cave and a fourth dive may still be needed on Tuesday.

"If we don't, then we will commence the retrieval process tomorrow," he said.

"The difficulties aren't significant ... other than the visibility."

Just moving a piece of rubble stirs up enough sediment to drop visibility to almost zero for several hours, he said.

The body retrieval is unlikely to be completed on Wednesday.

"It is likely to be much longer," the superintendent said.

"It is a fairly extensive and complex operation and given the complexity of the cave system and how narrow some parts of the cave system is ... it could be a couple of days, anywhere up to maybe 10 dives.

"Some of the divers, when they are going through a particular channel, have the walls of the cavity pressed up against the front of their body and the back of their body."

Superintendent Twilley said police won't know what happened until they recover and test Ms Milowka's equipment.

It is understood her parents are at the site.

Ms Milowka believed cave diving was the essence of exploration and knew the risks, but said on her website the rewards were worth it.

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