Incedent on the Columbia River

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Greg D.

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Location
Moses Lake WA
Arround 15:00 I got a call from a buddy of mine today, he asked me where the search and rescue vans were heading in such a big hurry. I had no idea, my pager hadn't gone off.(guess I gotta chnge the battery more often :11: ) I imediatly called dispatch for more answers.

Boat sank in the river one passenger is hurt but alive. the other two were missing. No real witnesses to tell us a last seen point, and the general area that was pointed out was about 90 feet, not to mention its in the middle of the channel and has a decent current.

The area is pretty remote, by the time the Vans got there it had been 45 minutes to an hour and it was a 20 minute boat ride the the site. Giving the fact that we had lost the golden hour and had no real last seen point the decision was made to not dive unless we got a good hit with the depth finders.

We also got out the underwater camera and did paterns with it. No luck. we search fo r a good five hours before calling the search, I belive we are trying to get a SS lined out for tomorrow, another county south of us has one that we can get if I heard right.

The boat was a built ski boat with nos and was running high octane racing fuel. From the survivors' account they had been cruising along at a normal speed when the driver came around the bend he gunned it, the boat hesitated he hit the gas again and it felt like the hit a sand bar or somthing next thing he new he was waking up in the water. He was the only one wearing a life jacket, go figure.

It's frustrating to go out on a search like that and come back empty handed, to see the family members waiting on shore, and have nothing to tell them but I'm sorry, leaving them left to wonder where there loved one is. I almost think thats worse than bringing back a body.

Well hope for better luck tomorrow.
 
Good luck and keep it safe.

Gary D.
 
No good news today, I guess the county south of us never bought that SS like we had heard, there is another outfit the brass is looking into. If I'm not mistaken its the same people that Gary was working with at preist lake. Not sure if we need them unless to find the boat as the bodies are sure to float in a few days. Other than that nothing to report.
 
I heard this on the news and wondered if you would be heading that way.... sorry to hear that your empty handed so far. Good luck.....


Kayla
 
The outfit with the SS will be here tomorrow morning. It is the same people that Gary D. was working with. I don't think it will take them long to find the boat, it is a realativly small area for a SS. The two people on the other hand might be a different story, we don't know if they are still there of have began to float and were taken down stream.
I was really hoping to be on the search but as luck has it I am going to be stuck at work, I would like to see the SS in operation. almost makes me want to call in sick :wink:
 
That SS sure works slick they had no problems finding our target, they found the back half of the boat yesterday and the front half today. We also found both of the missing victims. glad to be done with this today.
 
Side scan sonar is a trememdous tool for PSD, unfortunately, they are simply too far out of the budgets of most teams. Unless, they can get a number of organizations to pitch in. Would really take some of the risk and time out of our dives!
 
Boater Dan:
Side scan sonar is a trememdous tool for PSD, unfortunately, they are simply too far out of the budgets of most teams. Unless, they can get a number of organizations to pitch in. Would really take some of the risk and time out of our dives!
We are hoping to have one and be on line with it within a year. I'm not sure but I think this incident will be in our responce area. If not it will be close enough in my book.

It has sure made my job easier. Even if we find more then we barganed for.

Gary D.
 
It wasn't much of a search after they SS they put the divers so close it was unreal, darn near right on top of the targets. A wile back we had heard that a group ofm I belive ten agencys were going to bad together and buy one, but I don't know what happend to that plan.

Oringinaly posted by Gary D.
We are hoping to have one and be on line with it within a year. I'm not sure but I think this incident will be in our responce area. If not it will be close enough in my book.

I am curious gary who are you planning to run ths system? will it be the dive team or will you have a officer dedicated to it?
 
Gregoire:
It wasn't much of a search after they SS they put the divers so close it was unreal, darn near right on top of the targets. A wile back we had heard that a group ofm I belive ten agencys were going to bad together and buy one, but I don't know what happend to that plan.



I am curious gary who are you planning to run ths system? will it be the dive team or will you have a officer dedicated to it?
It's our department that is spearheading the group of ten counties. Our team will run the system and travel with it.

How close did Gene get the divers to the targets? If he missed by more than 6 inches from the target to the victim we are just going to have to have a talk with him.

What I like him to do is set the target 10 or so feet away ( if vis. allows for it to be that far away). That gives the diver a platform to hang onto and get a solid overview of the site.

Why? Being a LEO team we look at things civilian and FD teams normally don't. Is this or could this be a homocide? Just going down and grabbing a victim could destroy any possible evidence there might have been. We just take a bit more time and look a little harder.

We have even reviewed video tape prior to making the recovery of a water related death without witnesses.

We are hoping to be up and running within the next year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Gary D.
 

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