Posted on 06/02/2022 2:39:02 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Supraja Alaparthi, 33, was killed and her son, Sriakshith Alaparthi, 10, and nephew, Vishant Sadda, 9 were injured after the parasail they were riding hurtled into the Old Seven Mile Bridge. The family was visiting the Florida Keys from Schaumburg, Illinois.
The incident occurred at about 5 p.m. Monday as a cluster of scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms pushed off the mainland. Wind gusts in the area were up to 28 knots, or about 32 mph, according to Jonathan Rizzo, National Weather Service Key West’s warning coordinator meteorologist.
Authorities investigating the case say the wind caused the parasail to peg. This means the sail was being controlled by the wind, and it was so full of air that it risked dragging the boat.
The boat’s captain, 49-year-old Daniel Couch, feared the sail would drag the boat and endanger others, so he purposefully cut the cable that connected their harness to the boat, the report said.
He was hoping to catch the family on their way down, a law enforcement source told the Herald.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Great tale, thank you.
I know this is a sad story, so perhaps I could have left it out, but...I just thought of that experience from years ago yesterday, and I had resolved to write it down before my brain starts to erase things.
“My guess is, they wanted to be sure someone didn’t get about 100 feet up and decide they wanted out.”
I bet that’s the case.
Yes. That’s who is to blame.
so much for philosophy...
I loved para sailing when your boatguy knew what he was doing.
The first time that I did it was in Maui. My wife did the helicopter ride around in the volcano crater. I had done helicopter rides in the Navy and in Marin county to SFO. So a helicopter ride was not a priority for me. So I did para sailing and it was a natural for me and really enjoyable.
A few months later, the company I worked for had a meeting in Miami. Those of us who got there early had our choice of para sailing or boat rides. I took the parasailing and the boat driver, and I did a lot of fly bys of the hotel and out people on the beach. Before the week was over, the boat driver and I made runs to get people wanting to para sail.
Flash forward a few years and my wife and I are on vacation at a time share in Mexico on the Pacific. The timeshare next to ours had some cross benefits and one was para sailing.
So, I went down to talk to the boat driver for para sailing.
He and I didn’t connect. So I said No!.
A few hours later this boat driver pulled a female guest into the wall of the time share, and she was killed on the impact.
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