Last Saturday, November 29, a 39-foot MTI racing-style power cat flipped on the Caloosahatchee River near Naples, Florida crashed and killed three of its passengers. A fourth is in critical condition.
While official reports have yet to be issued eye witnesses and good Samaritans were near by and soon tried to come to the rescue. One person near the crash said the boat was traveling at 75 to 80 mile-per-hour when the accident occurred. No other boats appear to be involved.
Trenton Zamniak, who was nearby when the boat flipped, told Gulf Coast News Now that the boat “nosed up about 90 degrees and slips right over back.” He and his friends administered CPR to an unconscious man they found bobbing in the water until first responders arrived.
Two women and a man were rescued and taken to the hosiptal. Overnight, both women died of their injuries while the lone man remains in critical condition. A fouth man remained missing until midday on Sunday when his body was found by divers at the river’s bottom near the site of the crash.
The boat involved in the accident is a MTI 39 catamaran powered by twin 450-horsepower Mercury outboards. It was motoring into 10 to 15 knots of wind and there were gusts of 20 knots recorded on the river that afternoon.
Apparently, the boat became airborne at high speed and flipped, ejecting the passengers. Both engines reportedly fell off the twin transoms in the crash.
