Body of Captain Recovered After Small Tug Capsizes on Alabama River
The U.S. Coast Guard and native authorities have recovered the physique of the operator of a small tugboat that capsized in Alabama over the weekend.
At about 1640 hours on Saturday, Coast Guard Sector Mobile acquired a name reporting {that a} 27-foot workboat had struck an object and capsized on the Alabama River, a small tributary that drains into the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and Mobile Bay. There have been two folks aboard when the casualty occurred.
The U.S. Coast Guard didn’t have a waterborne asset on this inland space, they usually dispatched a Jayhawk helicopter aircrew to help with the search. The Alabama State Troopers and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, county authorities led the search on the bottom. A volunteer waterborne search and rescue unit based mostly within the city of Daphne additionally joined the response on scene.
The tug’s deckhand escaped the tug and was rescued, however the captain was trapped contained in the pilothouse, the Coast Guard stated. The volunteer SAR workforce and the state troopers recovered the physique.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is conducting an investigation into the reason for the casualty, in accordance with native media.
[Correction: Early reports, including this story, incorrectly identified Encore Dredging as the owner of the tugboat. The tug was in fact owned by a contractor, not by Encore.]
