Towboat Crew Rescues 2 After Collision, 3 Remain Missing

A towboat crew pulled two pleasure boaters from the water after a collision between their boat and a tow of empty barges August 30 on the Monongahela River in southwest Pennsylvania.

One of the two, a woman, later died, according to local media reports. Three others were missing, and search and recovery efforts continued.

The initial call to emergency responders came from the mv. Megan Ames about 8:45 p.m. at Mile 70, in the community of Rices Landing, according to a news release from the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit Pittsburgh.

The Megan Ames was upbound, pushing five empty jumbo barges, when the collision with the 24-foot Sea Swirl pleasure craft occurred, and the pleasure boat capsized, sending all five passengers into the water. The Coast Guard continued to investigate.

Sgt. Frank Mehalko with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission told a local CBS station that towboat crews launched a skiff and rescued a man and woman, who were flown by medical helicopter, with the woman later dying at a West Virginia hospital. The man who was rescued was reported in critical condition. Two men and woman remain unaccounted for.

No injuries were reported on the towing vessel, the Coast Guard said. No damage was reported to the barges. The pleasure boat was recovered, searched and moored nearby. Norfolk Southern rail traffic, which was disrupted, had resumed.

Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley has issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast requesting all mariners between River Mile 68 and Mile 75 to operate at a slow bell while search efforts continue.

Jim Bittner, who leads the Fayette County Swift Water Rescue Team, said the collision is a rare situation and something he had not seen in his 18 years of service. He added that all available resources were being deployed to try to find the missing people.

“Currently, we’re looking at moving to a recovery mode,” Richard Policz, the Greene County director of emergency services, said at a news conference the afternoon of August 31. “We’ve had numerous searches, resources, brought in from four counties and even the state of Maryland, state police helicopter helping us, along with Pennsylvania. We’ve got multiple sonar units in the water. We’ve had some divers. We’re just not finding anything. That doesn’t mean they’re not along the bank somewhere. We’re looking at that. You’ll see helicopters flying over. It’s just a tedious process that we’re going through right now.”

Greene County Incident Command was in charge of the search and recovery operations. Responders from Greene, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, Pennsylvania Fish and Game and the Coast Guard were involved.

In addition to sonar and dive teams, drones were being used in the search, along with canine teams searching the riverbank.

The Coast Guard requested that anyone with pertinent information to contact the Sector Ohio Valley Command Center at 1-800-253-7465 or call Greene County 911.