Sisters in Fort Lauderdale personal watercraft crash were on a guided tour: FWC
The personal watercraft crash that killed a 13-year-old girl and seriously injured her sister in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday happened during a guided tour, according to investigators.
Rachel Aliza Nisanov, 13, and Aviva Bracha Nisanov, 16, were riding tandem on a personal watercraft in the Intracoastal Waterway near the 2800 block of Northeast 24th Court in Fort Lauderdale when they smashed into a concrete dock around 3:30 p.m., according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state police agency investigating the accident.
The girls jumped the wake of a passing vessel and lost control of their watercraft and hit the dock, Arielle Callender, an FWC spokeswoman, said Wednesday.
READ MORE: New York rabbi tries to save daughters in Lauderdale watercraft crash. One dies
Paramedics rushed the girls to Broward Medical Center, where Rachel died Tuesday night, Callender said. Aviva remained in critical condition in the ICU, a spokesperson for the Medical Center said Wednesday.
Two other personal watercraft participated in the tour, Callender said. The FWC did not release the name of the tour company.
Both girls are the daughters of Rabbi Schlomo Nisanov and Rebbitzin Ora Nisanov of Queens, New York. Rabbi Nisanov heads the Bukharian Jewish synagogue, Kehliat Sephardim of Ahavat Achim, which runs a popular food pantry that distributes kosher food to all communities in the city, according to social media posts.
Ora Nisanov’s biography on the website for Bat Melech community center, where she works, says Rachel and Aviva are two of the Nisanovs’ eight children.
Both girls attended Bnos Malka Academy, an all-girls yeshiva in Forest Hills about two and a half miles from the family’s Kew Gardens Hill home. Rachel had just graduated from the eighth grade and her parents took her and her sister on a surprise vacation trip to South Florida.
Miami Herald staff writers David J. Neal, Isabel Rivera, Milena Malaver and Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 4:47 PM.
