Two 4-year-old children and a 72-year-old woman died after the pontoon boat they were on overturned last week while on Lake Powell in Arizona, authorities said.
The 25-foot privately owned pontoon was being towed on Friday by another boat near the mouth of Navajo Canyon in the Glen Canyon National Recreation area when waves “contributed to the towed vessel capsizing,” on Friday afternoon, the National Park Service and the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Lake Powell is located near the Arizona-Utah border.
Eleven passengers were on board and several became trapped under the vessel when it overturned.
When rangers responded to the scene, they saw a member of that group of boaters on top of the pontoon boat and others in the water, “with some of the party unaccounted for.”
Nearby boaters helped in retrieving victims out of the water. Two patients were transported by helicopter and the Page Fire Department ambulance for further medical treatment. The injured were a 12-year-old girl who was in critical condition as of Sunday and a man with undisclosed injuries, The Associated Press reported.
Tragically, two 4-year-old boys died in the incident, along with a 72-year-old woman identified as Melissa Bean, authorities said. The names of the boys were not released.
All passengers were related family members, the Arizona Republic reported.
The Glen Canyon NPS Rangers, the Coconino county Sheriff’s Office and Page Fire Department responded to the incident with aid from Big Water Fire and Rescue, Kane County Sheriff’s Office.
The incident is under investigation.
“The National Park Service and Coconino County Sheriff’s Office express their condolences to the families,” the release stated.
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