Drowning LOTW- Bomber Broke Through

Sad news at the NW Angle

Yikes. That’s scary. And a ATV ice fishing death up in Detroit Lakes a few days ago, not sure if that got brought up here.

Be safe out there everyone.

Super sad. I get the newsletter from Oak Island Sportsman’s and I think they were opening up to customers on the 26th. They were picking up customers in Young’s Bay as the main lake didn’t have safe ice yet.

Guessing the warm temps caused a deterioration.

Sounds like the accident occurred near Flag Island in about 10 ft of water.

If you can access the StarTrib site, their summary is detailed.

They also mention this:

About the same time Thursday morning, two men on an ATV went through the ice about 1 ½ miles north of the southern shore of Upper Red Lake, according to the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office. The men were uninjured, but they struggled to get out of the water and to safety. They alerted authorities but said they were stranded and couldn’t get back to their resort, according to a news release.

Emergency personnel responded, as did the resort. Within 35 minutes the men were back at the resort. Arrangements were made to retrieve the ATV when ice conditions improve, the release added.

Sad, sad, sad.

From the Star Tribune article:

A commercial transport vehicle commonly known as a “bomber” crashed through the ice on Lake of the Woods in the Northwest Angle on Thursday morning, killing one of the passengers.

It is believed to be Minnesota’s second ice fishing fatality of the season.

The accident near Flag Island up north was reported shortly after 8 a.m. The body of a male passenger was recovered about seven hours later in about 10 feet of water by a Cass County dive team, according to a statement from the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office. The statement provided no other details, saying the incident was under investigation and that family members of the deceased were still being notified.

Paul Colson, owner of Jake’s Northwest Angle Resort, said a neighboring resort was operating the Bombardier snow bus when it broke through the ice about 900 yards south of Flag Island. Several passengers, perhaps five or six, escaped from the water with the help of the driver, Colson said.

The last fatal accident on Lake of the Woods involving a commercial transport vehicle during an ice fishing run was 1996, Colson said.

He said the rear end of the bomber crashed through the ice Thursday and bottomed out on the lake’s floor. The front end remained elevated on broken ice. Colson said he checked the depth of the ice with his chain saw while at the scene, measuring 12 inches of ice.

“I was expecting to find thin ice but I found a foot of ice all around the machine,” Colson said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find better ice anywhere in Minnesota right now.”

Colson said his resort stayed out of the ice fishing business this season but not because of ice conditions or weather. He said local ice fishing outfitters, including himself, consider 12 inches enough to support a bomber carrying passengers.

Bombers, equipped with caterpillar tracks, are used on the American side of the lake to haul customers to and from fish houses away from shore.

“I would have put one of my machines on the same ice,” Colson said.

I would assume that fully loaded rig was around 8500 lbs maybe even more?? I have been in a few of them up there before and all of them had rear engines. Any know what a typical Bomber weighs empty?

Google says a b12 is 3400lbs empty with a 2000lb weight capacity

Joe wrote:

Google says a b12 is 3400lbs empty with a 2000lb weight capacity

Hmmm – I would have thought more. I have seen some glorified Ford econovans with tracks up there as well. Wait and see on the actual unit that went down.
Either or ice can be deadly.
RIP

It’s just weird, I’ve always been under the impression that those things were designed for limited flotation, for this very reason. I know the Frankenstein vans with the big passenger compartments on the back are supposed to float, unless the Arnesen’s guides are just making it up? Maybe the bombers just aren’t.

I saw Red Lake Remote is hauling clients out on URL in an airboat today. Jiminy Christmas. If that’s what you have to do to get out there, I want no part in it.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

I saw Red Lake Remote is hauling clients out on URL in an airboat today. Jiminy Christmas. If that’s what you have to do to get out there, I want no part in it.

Those things are sick. I’d love to have one for ice fishing lake superior but I don’t have 100k lying around to spare.

Very sad deal at lotw. That had to be a lot of panic for the person that couldn’t get out. Awful way to go.

Jakes doesn’t take their bombers out until there is 15 inches but told me most of the other resorts start going out when they hit 12. But I don’t blame Paul for defending the neighbor resort up there with that statement.

They’re definitely sweet rigs, that’s for sure. I hope I don’t ever need to get rescued by one.

Speak of the devil, I just saw on the news there’s “75-100” people in need of rescue on URL right now. Sounds like that airboat is going to get some use

I know some people that got rescued yesterday near Oak Island. They where fishing with a guide in a Sherp and it went through. It floats of course but it wasn’t able to climb back up on the ice and kept breaking through. Long wait but the rescue team finally fetched them around 3am and the Sherp and all of their stuff stayed for another day.