A recreational pontoon boat with eight people onboard apparently stalled in the main channel of Wilson Lake on the Tennessee River Saturday night just before it was struck by a barge, leaving one woman dead and a man missing, according to Alabama authorities.
Local news media quoted Alabama law Enforcement Agency and Lauderdale County officials as saying the accident happened around 10 p.m. about 1 mile east of the Wilson Dam. A boat pushing five barges had just locked through the dam when it crossed paths with the pontoon boat.
Crew members on the tow rescued six of the people who were on the pontoon boat. A 79-year old woman, drowned and her body was located after midnight, according to Alabama marine police A 62-year-old man remained missing Monday, as the Coast Guard joined the search and investigation.
Managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, Wilson Lake is a reservoir dating to the 1920s when the Wilson Dam was completed, submerging the Muscle Shoals area on the Tennessee. The main lock at Wilson has the distinction of being the highest single-lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains, with an average 3,700 vessels making the passage each year, according to the TVA.
The 18-mile long lake also gets heavy recreational use, including national bass fishing tournaments and 166 miles of shoreline studded with second homes and vacation rentals.
