The captain of a parasailing adventure boat in Marathon, Florida cut the line connecting the parasail to the boat in high winds, causing the sail to drag the three people in the harness–a mother, her son and her nephew–across the water before crashing into a bridge, killing the mother, the Miami Herald (via Yahoo) reports.
The three were pulled from the water by a charter fishing boat that came to the rescue. Supraja Alaparthi, a 33-year-old from Schaumburg, Illinois was killed in the accident. Her 10-year-old was was pulled from the water injured but conscious. Her 9-year-old nephew was unconscious and wrapped in the chute’s cords when he was found. The Good Samaritan boater and his two clients got the three aboard their boat and rushed them to a nearby restaurant to rescue personnel.
The captain of the parasailing boat said that an incoming storm had such force that it “pegged” the sail, pulling the boat backwards, forcing him to cut the cord before the boat was dragged backwards underwater. Parasailing industry experts, however, say cutting the cord is an absolute last resort and that the captain had many other maneuvers he could have done before the cord needed to be cut, including zigzagging the boat to reduce the force of the wind on the sail.