After fatal accident

Water rescuers appeal: “Heed storm warning”

Water rescuers and firefighters from Salzburg and Upper Austria were involved in the search.(Bild: Abschnittsfeuerwehrkommando Mondsee/C. Stoxreiter)

Death on Lake Wolfgangsee! A vacationer (41) wanted to save his children and paid with his life. There was a current storm warning at the time of the tragedy. Experts call for more caution. . 

How could this accident happen? What happened in detail? There are still no answers to these questions two days later - and perhaps there never will be. The fact is: a 41-year-old vacationer from the Czech Republic drowned in Lake Wolfgangsee on Thursday evening. In the presence of his children and a close friend!

Particularly tragic: according to information from "Krone", the dead man and his family had only arrived a few hours earlier. They met up with a Czech family at a campsite in St. Gilgen. They took a dip in the lake together.

Man went under five meters from the jetty
At around 6.30 p.m., a thunderstorm rolled in and the wind got stronger and stronger. The holidaymakers' children were out on a stand-up paddleboard near the shore. The wind drove the board out onto the lake. The 41-year-old and a friend swam to the children and tried to bring them to safety. As soon as the children reached the shore, things got hectic. The unbelievable had happened: The father of the family from Mlada Boleslav was suddenly missing. He must have exhausted himself swimming and drowned - just five meters from the jetty.

Divers found the body at around 9 pm(Bild: Abschnittsfeuerwehrkommando Mondsee/C. Stoxreiter)

"The families immediately raised the alarm. Unfortunately, they hardly speak any English," says Michael Pacher from Salzburg Water Rescue. The language barriers were quickly overcome. Head of Operations Pacher and his colleagues promptly launched a major search operation. Almost 100 members of the water rescue team, fire departments from Salzburg and neighboring Upper Austria, the Red Cross and the police were deployed.

Drones, helicopters and rescue boats searched the surface of the water. It had long since dawned when divers discovered and recovered the man's body at a depth of almost eight meters. The body was found several meters away from the campsite's bathing jetty. At the time of the accident, there was a storm warning.

The local doctor ordered an autopsy of the body. This should clarify whether the Czech father had suffered a heart attack before drowning.

Storm warning - what to do? 

In view of the tragic accident on Lake Wolfgangsee, Michael Pacher from the Salzburg Water Rescue Service appeals: "Storm warnings must be taken seriously."

There is a storm warning service on the large Salzburg lakes - including several warning lights on the shore. "If these flash orange every second, ships are obliged to turn back," says Pacher. Even stand-up paddleboards should then no longer be used on the lake. The lights flash from wind speeds of 60 km/h. Additional radio announcements are made when storms of 90 kilometers per hour or more are expected.

These lights indicate storm warnings.(Bild: Honorar)

Pacher emphasizes: "If the sky turns brutally dark, you don't necessarily have to go swimming in the lake." This can certainly be dangerous. He himself had to come to the aid of young stand-up paddlers with colleagues from the Mondsee water rescue service on Thursday. "The wind was suddenly very strong. They certainly wouldn't have made it to the shore on their own."