The Associated Press
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Authorities in southeastern Virginia conducted an air and water search Friday for a missing person after rescuing nine others from a 22-foot sailboat that capsized where the Pagan and James rivers meet.
The nine passengers were pulled from the water early in the morning, Newport News Fire Department Battalion Chief Robert Lee said. Six were taken to area hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately known and none of them were identified.
“We’ve located the boat,” Lee said. “It’s overturned. It hadn’t completely sunk.”
The craft was found “quite a ways” from the accident scene, he said.
The accident occurred around midnight, Smithfield Fire Department spokesman Jason Edwards said. Passengers stayed together in two groups and authorities were called after one group reached shore on the Smithfield side of the James River around 4:30 a.m., Edwards said.
Lee described conditions in the morning and overnight as cool, with a light breeze but no significant waves.
“In the James River, there’s a pretty good current through there,” Lee said. “Any time we have a boat overturned there, it’s not uncommon to find people a good distance from the boat.”