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LAKE POWELL — A shortened second day of searching for the bodies of two women presumed dead in Lake Powell ended Friday with little success.
About 2:15 p.m. Friday, the Kane County Sheriff's Office announced that "technical problems with the dive team equipment" halted search efforts for the day at Lake Powell. The search was expected to resume Saturday.
Crews are searching for two women who haven't been seen since a motorboat carrying 13 people — seven adults and six children from two related families — crashed into a houseboat near Dangling Rope Marina about 9:15 a.m. Thursday.
Marilyn Jackman, 57, of South Jordan, was killed. Her daughter Jessica Jackman, 22, and Valerie Rae Bradshaw, 29, of Sandy, are missing and presumed dead. Bradshaw was the girlfriend of Marilyn Jackman's son Matt.
Investigators believe the motorboat driver, Adrian Jackman, 59, Marilyn Jackman's husband, "may have been temporarily distracted by the movement of some of the children" and did not see the houseboat until it was too late, according to the Kane County Sheriff's Office.
The motorboat driver tried to swerve but collided with the front of the other boat, according to investigators.
Marilyn Jackman was sitting in the passenger seat. Adrian Jackman and his 11-year-old girl granddaughter were flown by medical helicopter to a hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz., with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the sheriff's office. A third person was transported by boat and then by ambulance to a hospital in Page, Ariz.
All three were released from the hospital on Thursday.
The remaining seven people were taken back to Wahweap Marina by boat. None of the people on the house boat were injured. All of the children were wearing life jackets, according to investigators.
The search is being conducted in an area where the lake is between 300 and 400 feet deep. But park officials were very optimistic they would be found.
"The area that they're searching is relatively flat because it's in the main body of the channel, so we're optimistic we will be able to find them. How long it takes just really is very variable. It could be today it could be several days," Denise Shultz, spokeswoman for the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, said Friday.
Shultz said actual divers would not be in the water, but rather a remote controlled submarine-like vehicle that includes both a video feed and sonar.
The searchers were conducting a grid pattern on the lake. They will search again Monday if needed, and then re-evaluate the effort if the bodies are not found, Shultz said.
"It is always sad when there's a death in the park. It's hard on the family, it's hard on our staff," she said.
Video Contributing: Andrew Wittenberg
