Emergency crews are searching for a missing victim after he and a second man were ejected from their boat during a high-speed maneuver on Fox Lake near Antioch Monday evening.
The Antioch Fire Protection District and Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 5:30 p.m. Monday to the area of Captain’s Quarters, 38283 North Bolton Place in unincorporated Antioch, for a report of a water rescue.
Emergency crews arrived and were informed that two people were reported to be in the water following a boat incident, according to Antioch Fire Chief Ian Kazian.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said two adult males were in a boat taking it for a test drive on the Fox Lake.
The boat was traveling too fast when it took a turn, resulting in both men being ejected from the vessel, Covelli said.
One of the men was rescued early on by a civilian boat and brought to shore.
He was transported by ambulance to Northwestern Medicine Hospital in McHenry with non-life-threatening injuries, Kazian said.
The second man went under the water and never resurfaced, Covelli said.
Covelli said it did not appear that the boat struck anything but that the turn resulted in so much force that it threw them from the boat.
The Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) was activated to bring additional fire departments from throughout Lake and McHenry counties, as well as from Wisconsin, to the scene with divers, sonar equipment and boats.
Neither of the men was wearing a life jacket and the boat involved has been recovered.
In addition to the fire departments, the sheriff’s office and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources are actively searching for the missing person. A drone is also being used.
As of 7 p.m., the fire department declared the incident a “recovery” operation and no longer a rescue operation, Kazian said.
Search crews were focusing their efforts on the GPS coordinates from the initial 911 call, fire officials said.
Some fire departments were being released from the scene for the evening.