Fairfax County and agencies from across the region searched into the night for a county police officer who disappeared in Pohick Bay during a diving team training exercise Tuesday afternoon.
The 15 people were part of the group that was training with a county helicopter in the bay not far from the southern edge of Fort Belvoir around 1:30 p.m. When the group wrapped up its training around 2:45, the officer was missing.
A search including personnel from the Coast Guard, the District of Columbia and other agencies was immediately launched for the missing officer, whose name had not been released Tuesday night.
Only four people involved in the exercise were divers, police said. The remaining 11 were from the helicopter and marine patrol units, and the Fairfax County fire department. The missing officer was not a diver, police said.
The team members were wearing “dry suits,” a type of diving suit used in cold water conditions, police said. Although he was not a diver, the missing officer was wearing one of the suits.
The dive team must be ready to dive into ice-covered water and in other poor conditions to search for missing people and evidence that can easily be discarded in the county’s many waterways, according to the Fairfax Web site. About 3 percent of the county’s 400 square miles is covered in water.
Pohick Bay is part of the Potomac River. The river’s temperature Tuesday was 62 degrees off the District’s shores, about 25 miles from where the officer went under, according to the National Weather Service.
Members of the District’s dive team who joined the search were told to make two dives within a tight time frame, which is considered physically dangerous, sources said. The body needs time to recover from the pressures exerted on it while diving.
Police said they hoped that infrared cameras that can detect heat sources would be able to detect the officer after nightfall.
The best-case scenario, police said, is that the missing officer was pulled downstream and waiting for rescue on a riverbank.
The search would continue “until we find him,” police spokesman Don Gatthardt said.
Staff Writer Bill Myers contributed to this report.
