WEST FORKS — Officials say a Massachusetts man chaperoning his son’s Boy Scout trip in Maine died after falling out of a raft while on a whitewater rafting trip.

The Maine Warden Service says 52-year-old Michael Arena was on a commercial rafting trip in West Forks on Saturday when he fell out of the raft as they were going through rapids on the Dead River.

Arena was thrown from the raft by waves that nearly flipped it over. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The commercial rafting trip was put on by North Country Rivers. Owner Jim Murton tells The Morning Sentinel the rafting trips are safe and the incident was an accident.

The incident remains under investigation.

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