Vessel 1, occupied five times, had launched beneath the Arch in St. Louis.  They drove for a few minutes upstream when the vessel motor quit.  They could re-start  the motor, but when they would try to put it in gear, the motor would die.  Vessel 1 drifted down stream toward some moored barges (Vessel 2), eventually getting wedged under one of the barges rakes.  A commercial tug that was in the area saw the vessel in distress and launch one of it''s rescue vessels, a Zodiac, with two crew members on board.  The Zodiac attempted to rescue the five persons trapped under the moored barges inside vessel 1.  On one of the passes in front of the barges, the Zodiac was caught in some swift current, which caused the front end to swing down stream and hit the front of a flat barge.  This caused it to capsize and eject both occupants into the river.  Both occupants went under the barge, with one being able to pull himself out quickly, while the other could not.  Other commercial tugs in the area responded to a distress call and were able to pick up both occupants of the Zodiac.  One of those persons, the passenger of the Zodiac, was not breathing.  That occupant was later taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.  The driver of the Zodiac, along with workers from the barge that picked him up, tied off to the moored barges, ran to the front, and lowered a line to the five persons still caught under the barge.  As soon as the five persons grabbed onto the line, vessel 1 was forced under the barge by the river current.  One person was lifted onto the moored barges, while the other four were rescued by being thrown lines from a tug positioned on one of the flat barges and being pulled forward.  All persons were transported to nearby hospitals with the one tug worker being pronounced dead.  All other persons involved were checked out, with nothing more than scratches being reported.  Only a small section of vessel 1 was visible the next morning.  A few hours later, the vessel could not be seen.  At the time of this writing (6/15/12), vessel 1 has not been recovered.
Sauget, IL                    