Members of the RCMP underwater recovery team may still return to comb Alouette Lake for a boater who went missing last Thursday evening. But for the most part, search efforts have been called off.
A Surrey man, age 37, was part of a group of boaters with a jet ski and a pontoon boat on the north end of the lake in Golden Ears Provincial Park, said Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue search manager Rick Laing.
Occupants on the pontoon boat came across the jet ski with no riders.
While they were able to rescue a woman from the water, the man riding on the jet ski could not be found.
RCMP dispatched a helicopter and dive team, and called on aid from the search and rescue team to hunt for him.
Using thermal imaging equipment, they combed much of the area, sending teams out for several hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Despite days of searching the lake, the missing man had yet to turn up as of yet.
The incident happened at the northwest end of the lake, above the narrows, in water that runs between 160 to 200 feet deep, Laing said. It’s an area of the man-made lake that’s thick with stumps below the surface and logs and debris floating on the surface, all potentially hindering the search.
“It’s just one of those tragic things,” he said of the incident.
Ridge Meadows RCMP Const. Julie Klaussner said the investigation is still ongoing.
“There are no scheduled searches planned at this time,” she confirmed.
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