Swimmer drowns after dive off Osterville bridge
Was on 3:30 a.m. swim with friends
A Cape Cod man drowned yesterday after diving off the drawbridge on Bridge Street in Osterville, where he was swimming with friends.
The victim, whom Barnstable police identified as Phillip Jones of Centerville, was with four other men in their 20s at about 3:30 a.m. when he dove off the bridge and did not resurface, said Lieutenant Britton Crosby of the Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills Fire Rescue Department. Jones was 23, the Coast Guard said.
''His friends did a little quick search to see if they could locate him, and they couldn't, so they called 911," Crosby said.
The call triggered a massive, eight-hour search. The Fire Department sent its dive team and a ladder truck with a light tower on its cab that ''lit up the whole area like a baseball field," Crosby said.
The Coast Guard also sent a 22-foot utility boat from its station in Woods Hole and a rescue helicopter from its air station at Otis Air National Guard Base.
But thick fog enveloping the harbor forced the chopper to pull out after about 50 minutes, said Petty Officer Luke Pinneo, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Boston. The Barnstable Police Department sent three boats, and the Cotuit Fire Department brought its rescue boat as well, Crosby said.
Divers recovered Jones's body just after 11 a.m. in about 15 feet of water about 450 feet south of the drawbridge, Crosby said.
The drawbridge links the mainland with Little Island and Osterville Grand Island, home to some of Cape Cod's most exclusive residential areas.
Diving from the bridge is prohibited, but local young people do it for the thrill anyway, said Patrolman Ed Scipione of the Barnstable police.
Though the bridge is only 16 feet from the water's surface at low tide, the paved road and railing add height to the jump.
''It is a dangerous thing, obviously, to do," he said. ''It's a high bridge, and the waterway underneath it can be rocky."
Still, Crosby said, he does not remember any other drowning or near-drowning around the bridge in the past 30 years.
Last night, the moon was full and the tide was ''very high" when it peaked at 1 a.m., Crosby said. The tide was running out when Jones drowned, and through the first hours of the search, creating a strong current that posed a challenge for divers and may have dragged his body farther south than they anticipated.
Scipione said the police have no information as to whether alcohol was involved, but there was no mention of it in the initial police report.
He said the drowning remains under investigation and an autopsy will be conducted.
Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com. 
