A wife died after a man driving a motorboat on Lake Powell in Utah got distracted by his fellow passengers, lost control of the vessel and flipped it over on Thursday, according to deputies who spoke to the Associated Press.
His daughter and son's girlfriend has also gone missing after the waterfront catastrophe.
59-year-old Adrian Jackman, hailing from South Jordan, Utah, allegedly attempted to jerk the boat away from the imminent houseboat once it came into his view, but he could not wrangle the craft quickly enough. He hit the front corner, turning the boat over.
His wife, 67-year-old Marilyn Jackman, died from the accident. 22-year-old Jessica Jackman, daughter of Marilyn and Adrian, along with Valerie Rae Bradshaw, 29, are still missing in the lake.
Using robot and radar equipment bearing waterproof cameras, rescue crews scoured the floor of the lake on Friday, in hopes of finding the two missing women. They waded all throughout the 400-foot-deep water near Dangling Rope Marina, according to Kane County sheriff Sgt. Alan Alldredge.
Nobody in the houseboat sustained any injuries, police reported.
Most of the passengers riding in the motorboat-which carried a total of 13 people-were members of family from the northern Utah area.
The group was apparently going to Rainbow Bridge-one of the biggest natural bridges in the world-when they crashed.
Each of the six children on the motorboat wore life jackets. Adrian Jackman, along with his 11-year-old graddaughter, were taken by helicopter to a hospital in Arizona. Another passenger went to a nearby hospital by ambulance. All three were released that same day.
According to Alldredge, boaters usually go out on the water in the early hours of morning while the waves are relatively calm.
