Clues at Marker 15? Debris, damage indicate Keys boat may have veered outside channel
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Boat crash off the Florida Keys
One teen died and several were injured after a boat hit a channel marker.
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Large shards of fiberglass debris litter the bay bottom just outside channel Marker 15 along Cutter Bank at the southern edge of Biscayne Bay — another possible indicator of the moments leading up to a fatal Labor Day weekend boat crash.
The channel, located west of Broad Creek, ends at the southern boundary of Biscayne National Park, where the waters of Miami-Dade County blend into Monroe County and the Florida Keys.
It’s the site of the Sunday evening crash that threw all 14 people overboard and killed Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, a 17-year-old senior at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Southwest Miami-Dade. Seven other people were injured, three of them seriously. One of her friends, Katerina Sofia Puig, also 17, remains hospitalized and fighting for her life.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is the lead investigative agency trying to piece together what led to the crash. People close to the family told the Miami Herald that a larger boat, or possibly its wake, may have somehow contributed to 51-year-old George Pino, a prominent Doral commercial real estate broker, steering his vessel into the channel marker.
Pino has not commented on the accident and FWC officers have not provided many details outside of what the agency has already released, which hasn’t been much — only that the boat hit channel Marker 15, everyone went in the water, and civilian boaters — and then law enforcement and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews — plucked people out. The boat was heading back from Elliott Key to the Ocean Reef Club, the gated community and resort in North Key Largo where Pino was a member. The marker was the last one in a string lining a straight, relatively wide channel.
READ MORE: How do boaters avoid hazards? What to know about markers, buoys and other warning signs
Navigational channels are designated with numbered red and green markers on opposite sides — with the safe route running between them. With Pino heading south, the red marker should have been on his right and green on his left.
Not all channels in Biscayne Bay are well marked but the channel at Cutter Bank, part of the heavily traveled Intracoastal Waterway, is. The markers there are placed atop girthy, round steel poles that stick out from the surface of the water about 10 to 12 feet.
The red and green markers are about 30 yards apart, making the channel about 100 feet wide for the most part. That’s ample room for single boats and enough to accommodate two vessels like Pino’s 29-foot Robalo passing in opposite directions. Larger vessels, or ones with large wakes, might force boaters to slow down to comfortably pass.
Photos of Pino’s salvaged boat are the strongest clues that the vessel veered out of the channel just before striking the marker. The boat, a 2019 model with twin engines, was extensively damaged on the starboard, or right, side of its hull, which means it struck just on the outside of the channel marker.
Miami Herald reporters visiting the site on Thursday found no tell-tale clues on the sturdy steel marker, but did find a significant debris field of large fiberglass pieces. They were strewn across the shallow bay bottom to the left of and behind Green Marker 15 — another indicator that the boat veered just outside the official channel.
The water just outside the channel is actually about the same depth as inside, around seven feet, with the shallow grass beds of Cutter Bank still a short distance to the east.
Why Pino’s boat left the channel remains the critical unanswered question in the investigation.
In an unusual move, FWC’s top brass on Friday issued simultaneous statements ensuring the public that it is doing all it can to quickly and thoroughly provide answers to what happened.
“My prayers go out to the families of those involved in this terrible accident,” FWC Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto said. “Our South Florida community mourns with them and we at the FWC pledge to do everything we can to provide the answers to the questions being asked about this incident.”
It’s not typical for such high-ranking Fish and Wildlife officials to comment on boating accidents in Florida — the state that leads the nation each year in on-the-water fatalities, according to U.S. Coast Guard data.
Maj. Alberto Maza, FWC’s South Bravo regional commander, said his investigators “have been working this terrible boating accident virtually nonstop since it happened.”
“It’s top on our priority list and we’re committed to making sure a full and accurate investigation is completed quickly but thoroughly. I know these families would not want our investigators to sacrifice accuracy for speed.”
FWC’s director of law enforcement, Col. Roger Young, urged patience from the public as the investigation progresses.
“Boating accidents can be complex, and our investigators are specifically trained to conduct thorough and comprehensive examinations of all factors to make a final determination of what occurred,” Young said. “They look at all the available evidence, speak to everyone involved and analyze crucial data to ensure an accurate assessment is made.”
Also on Friday, Luciana Fernandez’s family issued a statement asking for privacy and saying they will not provide further comment on the tragedy.
“As we deal with the heartbreaking loss of our daughter Lucy, we ask that we be afforded the ability to deal with our grief as a family, in private. We are devastated by this catastrophic event and plea for your understanding and compassion in this terrible time. We thank everyone who has expressed their sympathy, faith, love and support and ask for your continued prayers, not only for Lucy and our family, but for everyone impacted by this tragedy.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 6:35 AM.
