BOWDOIN COLLEGE GRANT – Two brothers drowned Tuesday when one failed to resurface after diving into a whirlpool of water in remote Gulf Hagas and the other jumped in to rescue him.

The current in Pleasant River at Billings Falls apparently pulled Kevin Russell, 23, of Waco, Texas, and Kenneth Paul Russell, 25, of Melrose Park, Pa., under the water and they were unable to resurface.

Billings Falls is located approximately 12 miles east of Greenville.

Kenneth Russell’s body was recovered Tuesday evening and divers located Kevin Russell’s body Wednesday morning on a ledge about 18 feet below the water’s surface. Both bodies were taken to Lary Funeral Home in Milo.

Kenneth was on leave from the U.S. Navy, and Kevin had been vacationing at a family camp on Pushaw Lake near Bangor.

“It was a very difficult recovery effort,” Warden Adam Gormely, the lead warden on the case, said Wednesday. The area is rugged terrain with treacherous vertical drops of up to 100 feet along the river. Recent rain had swelled the river creating frothy white water in the falls area that had the same power as water at low-head dams, according to the warden.

“It creates such an eddy, you can’t escape it; any time you have that much water going through a channel dropping into a large pool, it creates unseen hydraulics that make it almost impossible to escape from,” Gormely said.

Veteran Warden Sgt. Pat Dorian said that the men thought it was a nice pool of water off the trail, but with the white water it would have been a dangerous place to be.

Gormely said the two men and their uncle, Scott Whitney, 49, of Hudson, arrived Tuesday to hike into Billings Falls, a spot where they have hiked in past years. The warden said the men apparently liked to jump from the 15-foot-high ledge into the water at this location.

Whitney told wardens that there was some discussion among the men whether or not to jump because the water was higher than they usually have encountered. Kevin, however, decided to jump in. Watching above, the men became concerned when Kevin failed to appear at the surface. Recognizing that his brother was in trouble, Kenneth jumped into the foaming white water to rescue him.

Gormely said Whitney ran into the woods to retrieve a log that he could throw to the men as a lifeline. When he returned seconds later, Whitney saw Kenneth lying face down in the water downstream from the falls. The uncle made his way to the water and carried Kenneth to shore where he immediately applied CPR without success, according to the warden. Whitney reportedly then retrieved his clothing, ran a mile and half out to his truck parked at the west end of Gulf Hagas at the bridge crossing of Pleasant River, and drove back to the Katahdin Iron Works gate where he asked the attendant to get help.

After receiving the call at about 5 p.m., a search party was formed of wardens, forest rangers, volunteer firefighters from the Milo and Greenville fire departments, and ambulance personnel from Three Rivers Ambulance and Mayo Regional Hospital’s wilderness crew.

At first, the searchers parked their vehicles at the bridge and walked the distance to the falls. They later used a shortcut discovered from the air by warden pilot Otis Gray. They called off the search around 10 p.m. Tuesday.

At daybreak Wednesday, the searchers carried a canoe, life jackets, diving equipment and safety ropes into the region to retrieve Kevin Russell’s body. An all-terrain vehicle was used to help ferry some of the items to a certain point on the trail, according to Gormely.

Warden diver Joe Wilkinson found Kevin Russell’s body at about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday. A ledge apparently snagged his body 18 feet below the surface at a point where the water is 25 feet deep.

“It was a very unique dive for me because we generally don’t dive in those conditions where there are hydraulics at play,” Wilkinson said. Nor has he ever had to carry his scuba gear such a distance. He said the five-member dive team carried two sets of full scuba gear, each weighing about 100 pounds, and safety ropes, for about a mile. At the falls, the team used ropes to get the equipment to the water’s edge.

Wilkinson said that while he was in the water two ropes were attached to him, the ends held by wardens on either side of the river. Another suited diver stood by in case he needed help. He said he was confident of the dive because of the support from his team members, Mike Joy, Bruce Loring, Terry Hughes and Don Grey.

“The whole recovery operation was an amazing effort by everyone involved,” Wilkinson said.

The two deaths bring the number of fatalities in Gulf Hagas this year to three. Jeffrey Peet of Hampden, 47, died after falling about 100 feet down a ravine while hiking on Jan. 2.