By Jeff Lipton
As of press time, police said they had recovered a body from the water not far from where the accident occurred, and were in the process of positively identifying it.
Search and rescue teams had concentrated their efforts in Reynolds Channel, about a quarter-mile east of the bridge, near the Cedarhurst Yacht Club. The boater, who was presumed drowned, was identified on Monday as 57-year-old Yaakov Wiczyk of Hewlett Bay Park.
Members of the victim's family met with police and Coast Guard officials at the yacht club on Monday morning and afterward told the Herald that they were too distraught to talk about the incident.
County police said they returned to the area to resume the search on Monday, with four boats. But police scuba divers were called out of the water when severe weather threatened the area. Weather permitting, scuba divers were expected to resume their search on Tuesday.
We have had a full-scale search under way, said Detective Sgt. Bill Miller of the Fourth Squad. He had just left his home a short time before the accident occurred, Miller said of the victim. He was just going out with the boat. As he was passing the Cedarhurst Yacht Club, about a couple of hundred yards west of it, he hit a wake and was ejected from the boat. He came up swimming. We believe he may have been struck by his own boat.
Authorities received a call from a good Samaritan who said she witnessed the boater, who was alone and apparently not wearing a lifejacket, falling from his vessel at about 11:05 a.m. on Sunday. According to authorities, a wave, probably produced by other vessels, knocked the victim into the water. The boat, a 14-foot Boston Whaler powered by a single outboard engine, continued to travel in circles, and according to a witness, the man tried to swim over to the boat to gain control of it.
The good Samaritan saw the boat run over the person, and he did not come up, said Lieutenant Jonas Yang of the Coast Guard in East Moriches.
The Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department was first on the scene after receiving a call from the Nassau County Police Department. Wiczyk fell into the water near the yacht club on Prospect Avenue, about 100 feet from shore, said Fire Chief John Heidrich. About 30 members of the fire department, including the water rescue unit, participated in the search.
We redirected our units to Cedarhurst Yacht Club, said Heidrich. After interviewing a witness who observed the incident, we started our dive operations. The fire department established a command center at the yacht club, he said.
The New York City Police Department deployed two scuba divers from the city air/sea rescue helicopter. The Inwood Fire Department's dive team assisted. The Atlantic Beach Rescue Squad, under the direction of Jonathan Kohan, also provided help, along with the dive team from the Freeport Fire Department.
When we got there, the boat was actually traveling in circles in the water, Heidrich said. The boat was running and spinning out of control.
Wiczyk did not have an emergency shutoff switch, which would have killed the boat's power when his hand was yanked from the throttle, police said.
Heidrich said the helicopter pilot used the wind his craft produced to force the boat into a dock at the Cedarhurst Yacht Club. That's how we secured it, Heidrich said. It was pretty amazing.
Two divers were sent into the water where the witness saw the man go in, Heidrich said, adding that a diver from his department joined in the search.
Rescue workers focused their search on the three-quarter-mile distance from the yacht club to the bridge. It's a very small, contained area, Yang said.
Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department members spent two hours searching the water on Sunday. The Long Beach Fire Department also was called, and remained on standby on the south side of the bridge. The Nassau County Police Department assisted in the search and kept other boats away from the area during the operation, along the north shore of the channel. The county also provided a helicopter for the search.
The Coast Guard continued to search the water until about 8 p.m. on Sunday, but had to suspend operations due to darkness, said Yang. They picked up the search the following morning, he said.
During the entire operation, there was great cooperation between the New York City Police Department, Nassau County Police Department and Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department. It was one of the best-run operations I have seen in some time, Heidrich said. The Town of Hempstead Bay Constables also helped in the search.
The water in the area where the man fell in is up to 25 feet deep. Heidrich said the current was good for rescue operations, but was moving rapidly.
Since the man is presumed dead, the Coast Guard was also out on Monday, focused on recovery efforts, Yang said.
The boat, registered to and owned by Wiczyk, was taken to the county's Marine Bureau facility at Bay Park for further investigation.
