Another boat wreck - Uber CEO parents / mother dead

[sirbob]

The dad is in the hospital - they were running an Advantage on Pine Flat Lake near Fresno...



Pictured: Boat wreckage of accident which killed Uber CEO's mother

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4549588/Pictured-Boat-wreckage-Uber-CEO-s-mother-died.html

'An unspeakable tragedy': Mangled wreck of Uber CEO's parents' boat is pulled from the water after it hit a rock and sank - killing his mother and leaving his dad injured and stranded for hours in remote California lake
Bonnie Kalanick, 71, died in the accident and her husband Donald was injured
The couple's 40-year-old son is billionaire Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
The accident occurred in Pine Flat Lake in Fresno, California, on Friday
It took authorities two hours to find the debris at around 5pm
Mr Kalanick is in a critical condition and remains in hospital in California
By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 07:39 EDT, 28 May 2017 | UPDATED: 11:51 EDT, 28 May 2017
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This is the boat wreckage of the accident which killed the mother of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick on Friday.

Bonnie Kalanick, 71, died in the accident at Pine Flat Lake in Fresno, California, two hours after her boat hit a rock and crashed.

Her husband Donald was rescued and taken to hospital in a critical condition and the couple's dog also survived the accident.

The couple were found on the shore on Friday shortly after 5pm when a helicopter from the Sheriff’s Office Boating Enforcement Unit which was patrolling the river noticed the debris.

Scroll down for video

This is the sunken boat which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's mother and father were in when it hit a rock and sank in Fresno, California, on Friday +6
This is the sunken boat which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's mother and father were in when it hit a rock and sank in Fresno, California, on Friday

Bonnie Kalanick, Travis's 71-year-old mother, (pictured together) died in the accident +6
Bonnie Kalanick, Travis's 71-year-old mother, (pictured together) died in the accident

It's not clear how far they were found from where the boat was eventually recovered.

Sheriffs Deputies estimated that the pair were found two hours after the crash, ABC reports.

Mr Kalanick, 78, was taken to hospital where he remained on Saturday in a critical condition.

Mrs Kalanick died at the scene.

Travis Kalanick has not spoken of the tragedy but an Uber spokesman issued a statement on Saturday to express the company's condolences.

'Last night Travis and his family suffered an unspeakable tragedy.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...age-Uber-CEO-s-mother-died.html#ixzz4iPowQG6X
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[Dan Lorenze]

Awful..

 

[HitIt]

The lake is pretty mellow but with the rapidly changing water level, there are lots of rock hazards that are sometimes where you would least expect them. Lots of floating debris also with the water rising. Sad deal.

 

[RiverDave]

Did someone t bone them?

 

[sirbob]

Did someone t bone them?

I think they hit a submerged rock - the husband was waiting for approx. 2 hours for someone to find him and his wife - she died in the wreck. Boat sunk and I think he tried to get to some land with his wife.

Sad situation.

 

[milkmoney]

Wow. Jus horrible. Can't imagine Being there that long with ur wife not alive and nothing u can do [emoji107] [emoji202]

 

[Cole Trickle]

[emoji20]

 

[Cray Paper]

Man that really sucks, elderly couple out enjoying their retirement and have that happen. I don't know that lake, but from the pics it looks really small for a boat like that. It's strange how the side is blown out, boat must have rolled on to the rock on that side?

 

[HitIt]

I don't know that lake, but from the pics it looks really small for a boat like that.

The pictures of the boat are from the part of the lake where the river feeds it and it is fairly narrow. Pine Flat is about 19 miles long when it is full and holds 1 million acre feet. It is an Army Corp of Engineers lake that is used for power generation and farmland irrigation. It isn't huge but it is definitely not small. There is a 55 mph limit on the lake. The water level in the lake fluctuates quite a bit and the lake has some very large boulders and rocky islands that are at times barely submerged. In some places, you can be several hundred feet off the shore and have a barely submerged rocky island under you that is impossible to see. It is not feasible to mark all of the hazards because of how much the lake fluctuates.

I have been going there for a very long time and know the shoreline pretty well at all lake levels but I still get surprised every now and then. I have seen quite a few people hit bottom there. I have also seen many people that anchor their boats overnight end up high and dry in the morning. At the end of summer, when the lake is low, it can drop more that 5 vertical feet in 1 day which, depending on the slope of the shore, can leave you around 50-100 feet from the water.

 

[Sbarry]

Horrible [emoji17]

 

[HitIt]

https://www.fresnosheriff.org/media...in-pine-flat-lake-woman-dead-man-injured.html

 

[Raffit78]

Horrible.

 

[rightytighty]

This is where we are this weekend. Very sad but was avoidable. Lake is run by Corp of Engineers. Very friendly with a few. Was told they were changing drivers at speed and lost control of boat. And the rest is incredibly sad.

 

[Advantage 1]

Was told they were changing drivers at speed and lost control of boat.

Wow... :thumbsdown

 

[NorCalRiverRat]

they were changing drivers at speed

I'm trying to think of a reason you would do that, but coming up with nothing...the husband will be questioning that if he lives. Bad deal.

 

[Advantage 1]

I'm trying to think of a reason you would do that, but coming up with nothing....

x2

 

[Kailuaboy89]

Really sad....what a terrible accident..

 

[Willie B]

... A friend who lives on 66 acres on that Lake ... he and the people that were up for the holiday weekend we're at the launch ramp at trimmer when they pulled the boat out ...I will have to wait till one of the people that was there gets home to see if he has any input ...

...spent a lot of my youth at pine flat was a great place to go until the Army corpse of engineers put in the generating plant in at the dam and there went all the water for most of the boating season...

 

[Willie B]

... just talked to my friend...launch ramp at trimmer was closed while they were pulling the wreckage of the boat out and doing the initial investigation so he couldn't launch his 18 foot Hallett with a 426 Max Wedge ...one of the other guys couldn't launch his houseboat they took them down to Lombardos and were able to launch there...He didn't specify as to whether there were more boating accidents but he did specify that there were car wrecks...

 

[DragDad]

We were at our houseboat out in a cove when the sheriff's went by. This was a BIZARRE accident. Apparently they were following friends up into blue water (the river part of the lake) at 40 mph. The wife was driving, and she was uncomfortable driving that fast. They decided to swap seats, but since the friends were pulling away, they did it at speed. The dog caused the husband to trip. The wheel got released or yanked right, and they hit the shore hard. Both were catapulted over the bow and landed in the water nearly 100' away.

At the time these two boats left the dock earlier, there was a Fresno news station doing a "Boating Safety" story... and in the background of her story, you can see these two boats leaving the dock. The second one was this boat, and 20 minutes later, the accident happened. It was a terrible, creepy crash, and it put a sad air on the lake all weekend. I have been spending weekends at Pine Flat since 1969, and there have been a few fatalities, but this one was really strange.

Sad day.

 

[NorCalRiverRat]

DragDad, Don't want to sound heartless, but is the dog ok ?

 

[RiverDave]

The pictures of the boat are from the part of the lake where the river feeds it and it is fairly narrow. Pine Flat is about 19 miles long when it is full and holds 1 million acre feet. It is an Army Corp of Engineers lake that is used for power generation and farmland irrigation. It isn't huge but it is definitely not small. There is a 55 mph limit on the lake. The water level in the lake fluctuates quite a bit and the lake has some very large boulders and rocky islands that are at times barely submerged. In some places, you can be several hundred feet off the shore and have a barely submerged rocky island under you that is impossible to see. It is not feasible to mark all of the hazards because of how much the lake fluctuates.

I have been going there for a very long time and know the shoreline pretty well at all lake levels but I still get surprised every now and then. I have seen quite a few people hit bottom there. I have also seen many people that anchor their boats overnight end up high and dry in the morning. At the end of summer, when the lake is low, it can drop more that 5 vertical feet in 1 day which, depending on the slope of the shore, can leave you around 50-100 feet from the water.

That sounds crazy, just judging from the text in your post. I'm sure it's not that bad, but in my head I envision driving a boat and possibly running into boulders the size of volkswagons at any given second that can't be seen, or even know where they would be.

We were at our houseboat out in a cove when the sheriff's went by. This was a BIZARRE accident. Apparently they were following friends up into blue water (the river part of the lake) at 40 mph. The wife was driving, and she was uncomfortable driving that fast. They decided to swap seats, but since the friends were pulling away, they did it at speed. The dog caused the husband to trip. The wheel got released or yanked right, and they hit the shore hard. Both were catapulted over the bow and landed in the water nearly 100' away.

At the time these two boats left the dock earlier, there was a Fresno news station doing a "Boating Safety" story... and in the background of her story, you can see these two boats leaving the dock. The second one was this boat, and 20 minutes later, the accident happened. It was a terrible, creepy crash, and it put a sad air on the lake all weekend. I have been spending weekends at Pine Flat since 1969, and there have been a few fatalities, but this one was really strange.

Sad day.

Sad story.. Thank you for shedding some light on this. I can only imagine what the Husband is going through right now.

RD

 

[RiverDave]

DragDad, Don't want to sound heartless, but is the dog ok ?

The dog is fine and being cared for by friends, as was reported on the police public relations website.

RD

 

[oldschool]

DragDad, Don't want to sound heartless, but is the dog ok ?

I believe the dog survived.

 

[Willie B]

That sounds crazy, just judging from the text in your post. I'm sure it's not that bad, but in my head I envision driving a boat and possibly running into boulders the size of volkswagons at any given second that can't be seen, or even know where they would be.



Sad story.. Thank you for shedding some light on this. I can only imagine what the Husband is going through right now.

RD

... having spent much of my teenage years at Pineflat was familiar with and taught to learn and respect the ever changing water levels ...have been up to the far end many times where it just turned into mud ...used to watch the cattle graze on the shoreline... it was drummed into our heads as youth's look out for rocks and stay towards the middle...a friend Doug Fitzgerald Had his very heavy house boat tied to shore in such a way that when the water dropped overnight the house boat tipped over and it was stuck in the mud on its side ...a major to right it ...took a few days...

 

[Scott E]

That sounds crazy, just judging from the text in your post. I'm sure it's not that bad, but in my head I envision driving a boat and possibly running into boulders the size of volkswagons at any given second that can't be seen, or even know where they would be.

RD

I've never boated on Pine Flat but I grew up boating on Shaver Lake in Fresno County. Shaver Lake is up in the mountains and at ~5600 feet elevation. Due the geology of the mountains there are large rock outcroppings in the lake that, dependent upon water level, are just under the surface that you can easily hit with a boat, be it an ouotboard, sterndrive or a jet. We used some of the rock outcroppings as a starting point for kneeboarding when I was a kid because we can start off on our knees and just sit on the kneeboard on the rocks just under the surface.

RIP to the deceased.