Two people are unaccounted for, after a recreational boat, carrying six people onboard, collided with an oyster barge being pushed by a tug near the James River Bridge, Virginia, on Saturday morning, according to the US Coast Guard. Four people were rescued by Good Samaritan vessels.
The tug ‘Miss Hannah’ called the USCG on VHF channel 16 at 7:44 a.m., when they saw the bow of the recreational boat pop up behind a tug pushing an oyster barge with a pump barge alongside. The four people recovered from the water were taken to a local hospital where they are expected to make a full recovery.
First responders from multiple agencies are working together by boat and air to search for the two other people that were aboard the 19-foot center console boat when the incident occurred.
The waterway is closed between the James River Bridge and the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel for safety reasons.
Search assets have included crews aboard a Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, Coast Guard Station Portsmouth search and rescue boats, a Virginia Marine Police airplane, a Virginia Marine Resources Commission boat, Newport News police and fire boats and a Hampton Roads police boat.
USCG and Virginia Marine Resources Commission are jointly investigating the cause of the incident.
