ROCHESTER, Wis. -- The rescue effort to save a man trapped underwater in a quarry in Wisconsin has turned into a recovery mission.

Searchers were hoping to rescue the equipment operator who fell through the ice Monday.

A sheriff's sergeant said crews were able to tip over the equipment -- similar to a backhoe -- and the man was not inside the cab that had become submerged.

Eight divers, four from Racine County and four from Walworth County, are in the water searching for the man's body.

Earlier, the sergeant said the man could have survived if he was secured in the cab with air.

The man was driving the equipment, which weighed as much as 50,000 pounds, when it broke through ice at a sand and gravel pit.