Two rescued, man found dead 20 hours after airboat capsizes off Florida’s Gulf Coast
Two people were rescued, and a man’s body was recovered, hours after their airboat capsized while they were scalloping off Florida’s Gulf Coast this weekend, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Two of them — a teenage boy and a man — were found alive Sunday after being spotted by a Good Samaritan, the Coast Guard said in a tweet. The third boater, a man, is dead.
The survivors are Troy Robert Lindsey Jr., 13, and Jimmie Russ Taylor, 62, who was operating the boat. The man who died was identified as 48-year-old Russell Dwayne Davis, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission incident report released Monday shows.
Their vessel was offshore when weather deteriorated, causing it to overturn and sink, the FWC noted in the report.
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“All three occupants put on life jackets, tied themselves together and floated until being found by a Good Samaritan approximately 20 hours later,” the report says. “One occupant had health issues and prior to being rescued, told the others he did not feel well, became unresponsive and passed away.”
Crews began searching for the missing boaters Saturday night after the trio didn’t return from the area of Big Grass Island, south of Fish Creek in northern Florida, the Coast Guard said. Fish Creek is in the Big Bend region of the state.
This story was originally published July 18, 2022 at 8:51 AM.
