A second day of searching has failed to locate a missing Buffalo teen who disappeared into the lower Niagara River on Wednesday morning.
The missing 18-year-old has been identified by New York State Police as Aung S. Hla. No other information about Hla has been released.
New York State Park Police spokesman Capt. Chris Rola said late Thursday afternoon that helicopters from the New York State Police and U.S. Coast Guard had searched the lower river gorge from roughly 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the effort to locate Hla.
Rola said searchers had also continued to patrol the lower river on jet skis, between Fort Niagara State Park and the New York Power Authority’s Power Vista as part of the search effort. Officers and investigators with multiple law enforcement agencies also walked the gorge shoreline on Thursday and flew surveillance drones through the area.
“We’ll resume our search first thing (Friday) morning,” Rola said.
Around 10 a.m. Wednesday, Park Police responded to the Niagara Gorge in the area of the Vanderbilt Stairs, located north of Whirlpool State Park, for reports of a person in the water. State Parks officials said Hla had been standing on a rock, fishing in a restricted area, when he fell into the river.
“He was part of a group of six guys who went down the Whirlpool stairs, went down the (shoreline) path and then got up on the rocks to fish,” Rola said. “But then he tried to get further out on the rocks in the water.”
Witnesses said Hla appeared to be struggling to swim and stay afloat in the fast-moving waters of the lower river rapids. Those witnesses said the teen went under the water and did not appear to resurface.
Rola said the rock formations in the water along the lower river shoreline are very slippery and dangerous to climb on. There are numerous warning signs in the area urging people to stay out of the water and off the rocks.
The search remains a multi-agency, bi-national effort involving the Park Police, New York State Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, Niagara Falls Fire Department and Canadian Park Police.