TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A boat captain accused of cutting the line to a parasailing group has been arrested months after an accident left a mother dead and two children injured in the Florida Keys.
According to WPLGDaniel Couch, 49, has been charged with one count of manslaughter and five counts of violating commercial parasailing laws.
A report filed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said on May 30: “The captain cut the line attached to the three victims” because the parasail was “anchored,” an industry term used to describe the moment where a parasailer becomes controlled by the wind instead of the boat pulling it.
At the time, the National Weather Service said wind gusts in the area were reaching up to 32 mph as a cluster of scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms moved away from the mainland.
The report said weather conditions, particularly wind speed, played a “key contributing factor” in the crash.
“All of a sudden the temperature dropped 10 degrees and the wind started blowing like crazy,” said John Callion, a charter fishing guide and good Samaritan who witnessed the incident.
Callion told news outlets he saw the cable snap and the family fall into the water before being dragged about a mile across the surface and into the Old Seven Mile Bridge.
The mother, later identified as Supraja Alaparthi, 33, was killed in the accident. Her son, Sriakshith Alaparthi, 10, and her nephew, Vishant Sadda, 9, were injured. According to the Associated Press, the woman’s 6-year-old daughter watched the crash from the boat with 10 other family members.
Days after the incident, lawyers claimed the boat company had been negligent in taking the family away as a storm approached. According to reports, Couch violated several commercial parasailing laws.
