The run was on the Virginia side of the falls. Level was 3.2
A full accident report sent by Spencer to a GF paddle chat:
Hello. It is with horrible sadness that I tell you Will Lankford and he did not make it. I’m happy to tell it in more detail, but this is the basic story of what happened: Will went first on the spout. I went second, flipped, and rolled up and caught the eddy. John Woodward came last and came into the eddy with me.
I looked around and said, “Where did Will go?” John peered around the corner and saw him up upright, starting to paddle to ferry. I couldn’t see from where I was, and then John and I were talking. Then John looked panicked and said he was pinned against the wall. I jumped out of my boat and climbed on the corner of the flake. I saw his head above water briefly with his feet pressed against the wall, but I didn’t make eye contact. Then he slowly submerged.
John climbed up beside me. John told me to live bait him. I struggled to open the carabiner on his tether, so John jumped right in. They both emerged and were floating down O-Deck. Will was limp. I yelled at spectators to call 911. Neither of us saw him flip or when he could’ve gotten a breath, so he could’ve been under between 1-4 minutes I would say. I paddled down and met them on rocks at Fisherman’s. We did CPR for a long time until paramedics came and took over. Numerous bystanders including a nurse helped us.
EMS loaded him on a boat and took him to Angler’s. Later somebody said they got a pulse in the ambulance. I’m so sorry everyone. This is so awful. Please let me know if you know any way I can be helpful to his parents or anybody.
From Bill Kirby – When the river goes over the Spout most of the water goes downstream thru O-deck but there is a pretty strong current that runs straight against the wall on ruver left that forms the cauldron at the base of the Spout. The wall is the bottom end of the flake. If you wash against the wall you’re pretty much doomed to a swim because it is undercut just enough to force you over and the current is too strong to roll against. Countless people have done this and flushed out safely but it looks like Will was pinned just long enough to drown.