A car that drove off a Virginia pier on Saturday remains underwater due to issues authorities have encountered during the recovery mission.
The Virginia Beach Police Department said in anews releaseon Sunday that the Virginia Beach Emergency Communications and Citizen Services received calls just before 7 a.m. local time “reporting a vehicle had driven off the pier at the oceanfront on 14th Street in Virginia Beach.”
Members of the police department and the local fire department responded to find the car “completely submerged.”
“Dangerous water conditions, [including] poor visibility, prevented divers from deploying,” police added. “This resulted in resorting to utilizing sonar to locate the vehicle which was determined to be on the ocean floor.”
The incident became a recovery operation, and when authorities attempted to recover the vehicle on Sunday around 1 p.m., they utilized a salvage barge and professional salvage divers from a contracted private company.
But due to “continued adverse water conditions,” police said there were “issues maintaining the stability of the salvage barge, as well as continuing concerns for diver safety.”
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The recovery has since been postponed, police said in Sunday’s statement, noting that it’s unclear how many people were inside the car at the time of the incident. “VBPD and the contractor are reassessing and devising a plan for a safe and effective recovery operation,” authorities said.
As of Monday, the car remained underwater, according toCBS affiliate WTKR.
Kaylynn Crawford, the 16-year-old who filmed the incident, toldThe Virginian-Pilotthat she was running on the boardwalk with a friend when she heard a crash. “Once they sped up, I was like, ‘Oh no,’” she told the paper.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Virginia Beach Police Department for comment.
source: people.com
