Here’s what we know — and don’t — about the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier crash
Two days after a car plunged off a Virginia Beach fishing pier, authorities are still working to find a way to recover the vehicle, and any possible occupants, while preserving evidence that may be inside.
Here’s what we know:
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Who was in the vehicle?
Police have not determined who was operating the vehicle, nor do they know if anyone else was inside, according to Virginia Beach police spokesman Jude Brenya. While authorities have identified the type of vehicle, an SUV, police are not releasing the make or model to avoid causing “a panic,” he said. They have not been able to identify the license plate, Brenya said.
Water temperatures around the pier are in the 40s, and anyone that may be inside is presumed dead.
Detectives have been reviewing multiple videos recorded by nearby people and businesses as well as city-owned cameras to try to identify the vehicle, Brenya said. They also are looking at missing person reports and following up on tips and calls that have come in, he said.
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Rough waters and other conditions derailed the original plan for recovery.
According to a Virginia Beach police spokesperson, adverse water conditions made the recovery impossible Sunday.
Brenya told The Virginian-Pilot on Monday that members of the police department’s Special Operations unit and dive team boarded a barge Sunday with employees of Portsmouth-based Crofton Industries, but the conditions prevented them from accomplishing much, he said. Ocean currents measured 3.9 knots, which is four times the safety parameters for VBPD’s divers. The divers are trained in rescue operations, not recovery.
“It was too rough out there,” he said. “It’s not safe when there’s too much motion on the barge.”
Crofton Industries has “hard hat divers” who use gear that allows them to stay underwater longer than the police department’s scuba divers, Brenya said. The hard hat divers should eventually be able to get a crane hook attached to the car so that it can be pulled up, he said, but not until the conditions are safe.
Officials will reassess and devise a new plan for a safe and effective recovery operation, Brenya said Sunday afternoon.
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Once begun, recovery could take hours.
The vehicle is sitting in roughly 17 feet of water, Brenya said.
In the past, Hampton Roads authorities have had to remove vehicles from local bodies of water, mainly in rivers or in retention ponds. In September, a car submerged in the York River at the Gloucester Point boat ramp for more than 15 years was finally brought to the surface. Officials at the time said it had scraped the bottom of the river during that time, moving because of the tidal flow. Authorities were unable to recover it when it crashed in 2007, and found it last year using sonar scans. The driver had escaped the vehicle before it sank.
Other local vehicle plunges into the Atlantic or Chesapeake Bay have mainly been accidental, and only a handful of the people involved survived. Last summer, it took days for crews to locate a tractor-trailer that went overboard on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. More than a dozen search and rescue organizations — including Virginia Beach police, the Virginia Beach Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard — deployed for the search. The driver did not survive.
Brenya said police sent a camera down Sunday to get pictures of the car but the visibility was too low to get any images, he said. Sonar equipment, however, was able to locate the vehicle, and determined it was lying on its roof on the ocean floor.
“The poor visibility is one of the challenges we’re dealing with,” Brenya said.
At this time, police have not said when the next recovery attempt will be made.
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The pier is closed.
The Sibony family bought the pier in 2022. Repairs are under way, and it’s expected to be open for the spring season.
“We at the Virginia Beach fishing pier are deeply saddened by the events that transpired Saturday, January 27th on the fishing pier. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family,” the owners said in a statement to The Virginian-Pilot. “We ask that the community give us time to do the necessary repairs to secure the pier. We look forward to serving you all in the coming season.”
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
Jane Harper, jane.harper@virginiamedia.com
Staff writer Stacy Parker contributed to this story.
