On 5/29/23 I, CPO 1, and CPO 2 responded to a call over the radio for a boat who was taking on water out on Lake Michigan.  CPO 2 and I were on the Chicago River at that moment and had to wait to Lock through to get out on Lake Michigan.  The accident happened around 11:30 am and CPD, Chicago Police Department, responded with therir Marine unit to tow the boat in before we arrived.  CPO 2 and I arrived on scene at approximately 11:45 am at the long dock in Monroe Harbor.  Upon arrival we were briefed by CPD on what happened and the owner/ operator were on the way to speak to us.  Once the operator arrived he stated they were headed South towards the Planetarium and both engines failed.  He checked the engines only to find out they were full of water.  A boat near by arrived around the time he noticed this and all the passengers were removed from the sinking boat and onto another boat.  They were taken to the Navy Pier which is North of where the incident occurred.  CPD arrived as they were pulling away and towed to boat to Monroe Harbor which is Northwest of where the incident occurred.  That is when CPO 2 and I arrived and took the scene over.

After investigation it was determined that the engines shut off due to them being submerged in water.  The owner of the boat stated he took it to his mechanic and got a rough estimated price of how much the damage would cost.  The owner told me he was not going to fix the boat anytime soon due to financial reasons.  He is just going to keep it on a trailer in the mean time. There were no known cracks in the boat due to coliding with an object.  This could have been operator error and forgot to put the plug in the boat before departing. For the passengers who boarded the other boat, I tried to have the owner/operator of the boat provide me a list of the people on board with their information.  The owner/operator did not have any of the passengers information.  He stated they were all friends of his family but they did not speak english and did not have any of their information.  I tried to get the name of the boat that took on the passengers but nobody knew the name of the boat and there was no camera footage for this incident. 

End of report
Lake Michigan
Chicago                       