A holiday in Italy ended in tragedy for a family from England. When 51-year-old Aran Chada tried to save his son from the water, he went under himself and has been missing ever since. The Coastguard believes the Loughborough sales manager drowned.
As several media reports, the family of four rented a boat on Friday and drove to Lake Garda. The older son left the boat near the town of Limone to go into the water. A little later, the 14-year-old had difficulties swimming. His father immediately jumped in to pull his son out of the water.
“He managed to get the boy back to the boat where he was pulled in by his mother,” Antonello Ragadale, a Coast Guard commander, told The Times. Just a few seconds later, the family man himself went under. Witnesses to the incident alerted the emergency services.
“We were about 100 meters from shore when we heard a woman screaming for help. I looked over and she was on a boat with two children who were screaming and pointing at the water,” one witness told 361 Magazine. . Lifeboats, helicopters, divers and a robotic submarine searched for Aran Chada into the night – without success. Because of an approaching storm, the search finally had to be stopped and resumed the following day.
Ragadale suspects the Brit suffered a cold shock when he jumped into the lake. At the time, the water was ten degrees colder than the outside temperature. “You have to go into the water slowly and carefully,” Ragadale said. However, that was not possible for Chada. “He did what any father would have done for his son.” He was a hero. The Coast Guard assumes that the Brit drowned. “We’re doing everything we can to find his body,” the commander assured.
According to “361 Magazine”, this is the third death in Lake Garda in the past week. Two men aged 36 and 41 drowned in front of the 52-year-old Briton.
Sources: “361 Magazine”, “The Times”, “t-online”