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Airboater's body found after rolloverBy JORGE SANCHEZ © St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000 INVERNESS -- The body of a Citrus County man was recovered from the Withlacoochee River on Friday night after an airboat crash. Douglas Gross, 55, 9163 E River Moon Court, was killed when an airboat that he was driving on the Withlacoochee River flipped over near the public boat ramp at Turner Camp Road. Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they have not yet determined what caused the crash. A passenger in the airboat, Robert Allen King, 47, who was visiting from New York, was able to swim to shore after the rollover, which occurred at about 5:38 p.m. King was taken to Citrus Memorial Hospital in Inverness. He was discharged Saturday morning. Gross was an avid airboater, according to his wife, Alice. He was a member of the Withlacoochee Airboat Association. The couple retired two years ago to the river area of Citrus County near Inverness and lived on a canal which led to the river. "He loved to airboat," Mrs. Gross said. She said her husband and King left Turner Fish Camp around 5:30 p.m. to take the boat home as darkness approached. "He just wanted to take the boat home and come back in the car because Friday night is fish fry night here, and we wanted to come," she said. Just south of the boat ramp, shortly before the turn to the canal which would take him home, the airboat rolled over. "Some of the guys in the neighborhood pulled the airboat out this morning," Mrs. Gross said Saturday. "You could tell it had hit something pretty hard, like a log. One side was smashed in." Fellow airboaters from the Airboat Association searched the river with powerful spotlights until Gross' body was found around 7:30 p.m. Lt. Joy Hill of the commission said the body was found at the bottom of the river, in relatively shallow water. The medical examiner's office is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death, Hill said.
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