JACKSON MAN MISSING AFTER TUGBOAT ACCIDENT

WEST ALTON, Mo. - Authorities searched Monday for a tugboat pilot from Jackson who fell overboard into the Missouri River while trying to retrieve a drifting boat.

The accident happened about 8 a.m. two miles west of the mouth of the Missouri near West Alton, the Missouri State Water Patrol said.

Charles Kauffman, 49, of 207 Elmwood in Jackson, was piloting the Vicksburg when he tripped and fell overboard while trying to retrieve a small boat carrying two passengers that had drifted away from the tug, the patrol said.

Kauffman surfaced and grabbed hold of the boat as it floated into the back of a barge. The current then flipped the boat over, putting all three men in the water, the patrol said.

All three re-emerged, but Kauffman then disappeared about 150 feet downstream below the surface of the muddy river.

One of the other men, Randy Holmes of St. Louis, was taken to Christian Hospital Northeast in St. Louis County with a broken leg and internal injuries, the patrol said.

The other man, James Courto of Alton, Ill., was uninjured.

The patrol said it called off the search after dark but would resume today. "The current is pretty strong in that area," said Pat Stubinger, a radio telecommunications officer with the Water Patrol.

American Commercial Lines of Jeffersonville, Ind., owns the Vicksburg.