Divers May Wait Before Resuming Search For Victim Holiday Boaters Impede Search For Man Who Jumped From Cruise Boat

It may be another week before divers resume efforts to find the body of the man who jumped off a cruise boat on Lake Coeur d’Alene last week.

Weather and intense boat traffic have Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies considering whether it would be better to let the Fourth of July pass before resuming the search for Chad S. Burgad, 23, of Bonners Ferry.

“I’d like to give the family closure,” said Sgt. Dan Soumas, who is in charge of the Marine Division. But deputies and divers are stymied by a huge search area that has to be cordoned off with buoy lines and where the water is so deep that divers can spend only five minutes on the bottom.

People have been accidentally wandering across those lines and the holiday weekend undoubtedly will increase the boating swarm.

KZZU-FM, the radio station sponsoring the boat ride last Friday, has decided to cancel its seven remaining cruises this year. “It would be inappropriate, under the conditions now, or even a month from now, out of respect for the family” said Brian Paul, operations manager for the radio station.

KZZU has sponsored 84 cruises for its listeners during the past dozen years. “We are sitting back as a company and considering whether we want to do them at all,” Paul said.

Divers and deputies agree the search would be much easier if Lake Coeur d’Alene Cruises equipped its boats with Global Positioning System equipment. The highly accurate navigation equipment uses satellites to pinpoint the exact location of boats, planes and even hikers.

Lake Coeur d’Alene Cruises has been considering purchasing GPS equipment for a year, said Fred Finney, general manager. But there isn’t a firm decision to add the gear to the five cruise boats the company operates on the lake.

The Coast Guard, meanwhile, has decided not to investigate Burgad’s disappearance over the side of the Mish-an-Nock Friday night. After reviewing the incident, “We determined it was not associated with anything anybody did,” said Lt. Manny Perez, a Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle.

“If somebody wants to do something really stupid, they are going to do it.”

In Perez’s years with the Coast Guard, he has investigated only two incidents where people have jumped from boats - one in the Puget Sound and one in Puerto Rico.

The incident in Puerto Rico involved an intoxicated man jumping 50 yards from the ferry landing. He drowned and later investigation revealed he did not know how to swim.

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department says overall the cruise boats aren’t a big problem. “It’s real hard for me to find fault,” Soumas said.

Friday’s incident, where Burgad jumped in the water and soon disappeared, is the third time in three years that people have leapt from the cruise boats into the lake. One man made it to the docks, jumped in again, and then died.

Another was rescued and revived.

Lake Coeur d’Alene Cruises said it has an exemplary safety record and couldn’t have done more to prevent the recent incident. “We’ve hauled 2 million people during the last 20 years,” Finney said.

“We’ve not had any problems other than what recently happened.”

He acknowledged that a crew member found Burgad dipping his head in the water and was talking to him when he was called away to a fight. That is an unusual situation, Finney said.

“Our crew did everything short of jumping in and we all know that would have resulted in two drownings.”

Burgad, a cook at the Kootenai River Inn, was jovial the night of the cruise, said Troy McFadden.

McFadden saw Burgad for about 20 minutes in the Ironhorse Tavern, where people met before going on the cruise. “He was enjoying himself, but not obnoxious or outlandish,” McFadden said.

Witnesses on the boat say Burgad had several drinks.

Tom Turpin, manager at the Kootenai River Inn, describes Burgad as easy going and hard working. “He loved to cook, he was upbeat, he was willing to help others,” Turpin said.

“He’s going to be sorely missed as a friend and as a team member at Kootenai River Inn.”

, DataTimes