A search team plans to canvass Lake Thurmond for the second time Tuesday morning in search of a man who went missing after a boating incident. It happened around 3:00 p.m. Monday at West Dam Recreation Area, near the state line.
The search team stopped looking around 7:00 p.m. right around the time some of the family received the devastating news.
Mark Padgett with Department of Natural Resources led the joint investigation.
“Some young ladies witnessed somebody on a personal water craft doing some circles. He fell off the vessel,” he explained.
It was a black Yamaha Wave Runner that witnesses reported seeing a man fall from into Lake Thurmond.
“[He] did not appear to be wearing a life jacket. He surfaced one time and did not come back up,” Padgett said.
Padgett told News Channel 6 those witnesses tried swimming roughly 250 yards to save the man, which is about two and a half American football fields, but it was too far. DNR and Columbia County’s dive team canvassed the area for about four hours.
“What you do with sonar is you try to narrow the field down. Diving is a dangerous vocation. If we can eliminate those guys underwater except for recovery, we’re better off,” Padgett said.
Padgett added others wanting to enjoy the water on a jet ski should be as safe as possible.
“In a boat, you ride inside the boat. In a personal watercraft, you ride outside of it. So, by law you have to wear a personal floatation device when you’re riding a personal water craft,” he said.
The search will resume at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday.
The identity of the man is being withheld until all of the family is notified.
