Tisa near Senta: bodies of two men from boat found
Gendarmerie used sonar to locate the bodies of G. O. (47) and S. I. (49) from Novo Orahovo, who fell from a speedboat near the Halas Carda resort on Saturday evening.
- The bodies of two men, with the initials G. O. (47) and S. I. (49) from Novo Orahovo, were found on June 14 in the afternoon in the Tisa river near Senta.
- The men went missing on Saturday evening, around 7 p.m., north of the Halas Carda resort, when they fell from a speedboat.
- Gendarmerie located the bodies using sonar, after a search lasting more than half a day that began with a rescue team from Senta.
- The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Senta is leading the case.
A search that began on Saturday evening reached a tragic conclusion. On Sunday afternoon, members of the gendarmerie found the bodies of two men in the Tisa river near Senta. They have been identified by the initials G. O. (47) and S. I. (49), both from Novo Orahovo near Backa Topola.
The men disappeared on Saturday at around 7 p.m., on a stretch of the river north of the Halas Carda resort. According to available information, they fell from a speedboat while the engine was still running. Witnesses noticed the vessel circling out of control on the river, with no one aboard, which is how the search was set in motion.
The first to respond was the Tisa rescue team from Senta. The search continued overnight and into the next day, taken over by the gendarmerie, which has equipment for working on water. The bodies were found with the help of sonar, at the part of the river where they had been expected to be.
“Gendarmerie members found the bodies at the spot where we suspected they might be, with the help of sonar,” said Nandor Baranji, coordinator of the rescue team.
How did the search on the Tisa unfold?
More than half a day passed between the report on Saturday evening and the recovery of the bodies. The river is not shallow along that stretch, and searches of open water are by nature slow, depending on equipment and conditions on the ground. Sonar, a device that scans the bottom and the water column using sound waves, proved decisive in the final phase of the search.
Rescue teams on the Tisa have warned before that sudden changes in the water and submerged obstacles pose a serious risk to vessels. It is assumed the accident was caused by a sudden loss of control over the boat or a collision with a submerged branch, but for now these remain assumptions. The exact sequence of events will be established by the competent authorities.
Divers and boats were deployed during the search, and the area was combed systematically, section by section. The fact that the speedboat kept moving even after its passengers had fallen overboard made it harder to judge where to look.
What comes next in the investigation?
The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Senta is leading the case and confirmed that the search had been intensive. In cases like this, prosecutors order a crime-scene examination and, as a rule, an autopsy, in order to establish the exact cause of death and rule out any circumstances that might point to something other than an accident.
Until those steps are completed, no official conclusion about the cause of the accident will be known. For now there is no indication of anything other than a tragic loss of life on the water, but the authorities have yet to give a final assessment.
The deaths of two people on a river that is part of everyday life in this region are a reminder of how quickly a trip on the water can turn into a disaster. How often do we think about what waits beneath the calm surface of a river?
