Double drowning recovery

[james croft]

I spent yesterday on a body recovery dive in Westmoreland Co, VA looking for two men who fell out of a boat and were missing. It was in a 70 acre lake. The structure in the lake consisted of flooded timber. While depth was only 12 feet, viz was 0 and fallen trees made it virtually impossible to do any search patterns. Many of the trees went to the surface and we had to pull ourselves over and through the limbs.

Both victims were located within 25 feet of each other but it took about 4 hours from finding the first victim to finding the second due to the trees. Sgt. Mike Berry with the State Police located the second victim lodged in a tree after hitting his tennis shoe. He had been searching this target area repeatedly but due to the trees could not locate the victim despite searching the correct site for several minutes.Using side scan sonar both victims were located as probable targets but locating the bodies was extremely difficult. I suspect the victims would not have been recovered without the use of side scan as it made divers repeatedly search hard to search areas that many divers would have written off as an area searched and nothing found.

Side scan sonar is an invaluable tool that saves hundreds of man hours in locating objects and I have been involved in a number of searches that would have been pointless if not for side scan. Here is a link to the incident: Missing fishermen found dead in Westmoreland County pond - News - inRich.com

 

[Gary D.]

Good job and Ditto on the Side Scan.

Gary D.

 

[ReefGuy]

Nice job on a tough recovery. Unfortunately our budget won't allow for a side scan, but fortunately our newest member is building one for us.

 

[Anti-Hero]

I'll second the invaluable nature of the side scan. We also employ underwater cameras in hard to search areas which has proven to be incredibly useful.

 

[vablackwater]

Hey James, Great Job to you and Mike! An amazing recovery of both victim's, especially considering what you guys had to deal with!

We were with Mike on Saturday in Fredricksburg for the vehicle recovery course i mentioned to you, would have been great to see you there!

 

[tc]

We've got a lake like that too, I don't envy you one bit. Good job on finding em!

 

[james croft]

Thanks. Even a blind squirrel can find an acorn once in a while.
It is satisfying to make recoveries. We were thanked numerous times from the victims friends and family. That makes it worthwhile.

 

[Boater Dan]

James:

Good job on the recovery. The type of environment you described takes a high risk task and complicates it from there. Glad you were able to make both recoveries and have everyone go home. Good job!

Dan