Boater missing on Kamloops Lake
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Updated: August 20, 2009 2:11 PM
Rescue crews are poring over Kamloops Lake after a Savona boater is believed to have disappeared in the water on Wednesday afternoon.
Kamloops Search and Rescue spokesman Brad Russell said a search team, alongside Mounties, are currently scouring the lake, looking for the missing 70-year-old man.
"We were out last night [Wednesday] with six members, along with the RCMP boat and a helicopter in the air as well," he told KTW, adding that the search continued Thursday morning.
Investigators believe the missing man, whose name hasn't been released, was in a small boat Wednesday afternoon when he had engine trouble.
As he was attempting to restart the engine, the boat is believed to have flipped, sending the man into the water.
Witness reports indicate the man was able to hold on to the boat for a time, but apparently lost his grip when the over-turned vessel wound up in an eddy.
Investigators have located the boat — with no sign of the boater — after it left Kamloops Lake and entered the Thompson River near Deadman's Creek.
Russell said the rescue effort is complicated by the fact that shorelines in the area are almost unsearchable by ground.
"It's just that the area is so rugged, it would be very treacherous for us to put a search team on the shore," he said.
"You're looking at 60- to 80-degree slopes in some of those areas."
Russell said the missing man wasn't wearing a life-jacket.
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