A state official said Monday that ice continued to hamper a search for two missing men on the James River, with search boats unable to operate on the waterway because they couldn’t navigate through the frozen water.
“It’s one sheet of ice all the way across” the river, said Lee Walker, a spokesman with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the state agency leading the search. Plus, he said, there are “big chunks of ice” that came down river from upstream, adding to the problem.
“The boats could just cannot maneuver out there,” he said.
But Walker said that a Cessna plane from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and an aerial drone operated by the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office flew continuously over the James on Monday as searchers looked for signs of the missing men. Others involved in the search walked foot patrols along the banks of the river, he said. But nothing was found.
The two missing men — Brian Austin Savage, 20, of Henrico County, and Kyle Englehart, 29, of Charles City County — left the Jamestown Yacht Basin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a 16-foot camouflage johnboat, crossing the river to their duck blind located on Grays Creek in Surry County.
Authorities learned around 1 p.m. Thursday that neither man had come back. A boat matching the description of the two men’s boat overturned in the muck near Hog Island.
The search has been in a “recovery” mode for several days now. Walker said that Capt. Milt Robinson, the onsite commander for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, told him that “they’re planning to be out there again (Tuesday).”
Walker said the hope is that the water begins to melt and that boats will be able to get back onto the river to find the men. “I was not given a cutoff date,” he said.
Sunday update:
On the fourth day of searching for two men reported missing on a hunting trip in James City County, ice impeded progress, according to Robert Lee Walker, a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries spokesman.
The search started close to sunrise and Walker said crews were wrapping up the day’s search around 4:20 p.m. to make it back to shore and maintenance by sundown.
Crews had not located either of the missing men, Walker said.
Austin Savage, 20, of Henrico County, and Kyle Englehart, 29, of Charles City County, who went missing Wednesday night about 7 p.m.
Sunday’s search involved two boats — one belonging to game and inland fisheries and one from the Virginia Marine Resource Commission. Lee said the ice made it hard to get boats in the water, saying that ice from Richmond moved south into the search area, making the conditions even more extreme.
The two men left the Jamestown Yacht Basin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a 16-foot camouflage jon boat, went across the James River to their duck blind located on Grays Creek. Authorities learned around 1 p.m. Thursday that neither man had come back.
The search found a boat matching the description of the two men’s boat overturned in the water. Officials said they were investigating the incident as a boating accident.
The search will continue Monday, Lee said.
Saturday update:
Three days after two men were reported missing after going on a hunting trip in James City County, crews returned to the James River for the third day in a row Saturday morning.
Officials from York County, James City County, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Virginia State Police started their search at daybreak Saturday morning for Austin Savage, 20, of Henrico County, and Kyle Englehart, 29, of Charles City County, who went missing Wednesday night about 7 p.m.
The search went on until sundown Saturday night, said Robert Lee Walker, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The VDGIF is leading the investigation.
“Obviously, they didn’t find anyone today,” he said.
Crews will return to the James River at sunrise Sunday to continue their search, he said. They’ll continue until sundown.
Previously
The Coast Guard has suspended its search on the James River for two missing boaters who left from a James City County marina on Wednesday evening.
Several state and local agencies are continuing to look for the men, even as it has now turned into a recovery effort rather than a rescue operation, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries said.
The Coast Guard’s decision to end the active search came at noon Friday — nearly a day after the men were reported missing — after factoring in the river’s water temperature and the possible survival time for someone in the water, the agency said.
“It’s always an extremely difficult decision that the Coast Guard has to make,” said Petty Officer Third Class Corrine Zilnicki. “The Coast Guard always wants to rescue people, find people, so this is a tough call to make. But barring any new developments, new information, the Coast Guard is no longer actively searching.”
The Coast Guard had gotten no information that the men were wearing life jackets or cold water gear, she said.
Robert Lee Walker, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries — the lead agency on the search — identified the missing men Friday as Brian Austin Savage, 20, of Henrico County, and Kyle Englehart, 29, of Charles City County.
Savage is a 2015 graduate of Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, where he played on the baseball team.
“We’re investigating this as a boating accident,” Walker said. He said the search would stop overnight Friday, but would resume again at daybreak Saturday morning. He said he didn’t know how long it would continue.
Englehart and Savage — both duck hunters — left the Jamestown Yacht Basin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a 16-foot camouflage jon boat. “They took a trip across the James River to their duck blind located on Grays Creek,” Zilnicki said.
Grays Creek, a winding waterway in Surry County, flows into the James. It wasn’t clear how long the men had planned to stay at the duck blind, which is a hidden site that hunters can pull their boats into as they wait for ducks to fly by.
Authorities were notified at 1 p.m. Thursday “that the hunters had still not returned to their truck,” Zilnicki said. Englehart’s white pickup truck and trailer were still parked at the Jamestown Yacht Basin at the time.
At 4:40 p.m. Thursday, a helicopter involved in the search “located an overturned vessel that appeared to match the description of the missing jon boat,” Zilnicki said. The boat was found on the northwest side of Hog Island in Surry, washed up in the muck.
That chopper was operated by LifeEvac3, based in West Point, the Virginia State Police said.
Kyle Englehart’s brother, Kameron Englehart, 20, said police told the family that a local cell phone tower last received a “ping” from his brother’s cell phone at 11:38 p.m. Wednesday — and that that was probably about the time of the accident.
Englehart said his brother loves to farm and hunt in Surry and Charles City counties, but that family members didn’t know the men were going on the water Wednesday evening. He said he thinks his brother and Savage were crossing the river not to hunt ducks, but to either repair the duck blind or batten it down for the snowstorm.
He added that some electrical equipment and a paddle were found with the jon boat. He believes the extra weight of the supplies might have combined with wind and waves to cause the boat to flip. “I think it’s Mother Nature that caused it,” he said.
But Kameron Englehart said he was holding out hope that his brother would be found alive. “This is the hardest thing we’ve ever been through,” he said. “He was loved by everyone, and we are still hoping that he will be found. I’m not going to be giving up hope. I need him to be alive. He’s a warrior. He’s a great outdoorsman … and he can survive everything.”
Then he added: “Pray for us.”
The search Thursday and Friday included boats, helicopters and equipment from various agencies. Aside from the Coast Guard and Game and Inland Fisheries Department, those included the Virginia State Police, James City County police, sheriff’s office, and fire and rescue; the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office; LiveEvac3, a private medical company; and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
A Coast Guard chopper from Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City (N.C.) searched the area for signs of the boaters until about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. At 1:30 a.m. Friday, the Coast Guard cutter Flying Fish arrived on scene from Baltimore. “They searched all night with no results,” Zilnicki said Friday.
A 45-foot Coast Guard response boat from Portsmouth joined the search on Friday morning. Walker added that the York County Sheriff’s Office deployed an aerial drone that searched the entire breadth of the James River.
Separately, three duck hunters were rescued from the icy York River Thursday afternoon after they became stranded, fire officials said. The hunters’ boat had blown away from their blind in the subfreezing wind, according to a news release on Abingdon Volunteer Fire & Rescue’s Facebook page.
