One person is dead and another was airlifted to a Hollywood trauma center after two airboats collided in a remote stretch of the Everglades in western Broward County Friday evening. Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue crews, guided by helicopters through difficult terrain, worked to reach both victims after reports came in of a serious crash south of Interstate 75 and west of U.S. 27.
According to WSVN 7News, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue responded to reports of two injured victims following the collision, which happened at approximately 6:19 p.m. Friday. One victim was pronounced deceased at the scene after suffering fatal injuries, the station reports. The Broward Sheriff's Office deployed two helicopters to help find the victims and guide first responders into the swampy, hard-to-navigate area, per the outlet's reporting.
A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue air rescue helicopter airlifted the surviving victim out of the Everglades and transported him to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where he was treated as a Level 1 trauma alert, the station notes. The cause of the collision remains under investigation, according to the same report.
Authorities Converge on Remote Crash Site
As reported by NBC6 South Florida, authorities were investigating the deadly crash involving two airboats Friday in western Broward County, with crews responding to the scene near Interstate 75 and Mile Marker 41. Broward County Sheriff's officials said there was one fatality, the station reports. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also responded to the scene, according to that outlet.
A separate WSVN report on the crash similarly notes that the cause remains under investigation, with no further details yet released on what led the two airboats to collide in the remote wetlands.
A Pattern of Airboat Crashes in the Everglades
Friday's crash is not the first deadly or injury-causing airboat collision to strike Broward County's stretch of the Everglades. In May 2024, two airboats collided at Mack's Fish Camp in southwestern Broward, near the Miami-Dade County line, according to the Sun-Sentinel. In that incident, a man with significant lacerations to the side of his body was airlifted to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood for treatment, the paper reported, while six or seven other people involved in the crash said they weren't injured.
Airboat collisions have also struck elsewhere in the Everglades in recent memory. CBS News Miami reported that at least 16 people were hospitalized after two airboats crashed into each other near Tamiami Trail in Collier County, in an incident involving one airboat carrying 20 people and another with 13 passengers aboard. That outlet described the Collier County crash as the third airboat crash that year in the Everglades, noting that an earlier crash in Southwest Miami-Dade in January had left at least a dozen people with minor injuries.
No further details on the circumstances of Friday's collision, including what caused the two airboats to crash, had been released as of Friday night. The investigation into the fatal wreck remains ongoing.
