BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Rescue crews were at the scene Wednesday afternoon after an airboat incident left two women stranded in the Everglades near west Broward County.
The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. near Interstate 75 and Mile Marker 40.
Sky 10 flew over the scene where two women were located and an unoccupied airboat was spotted nearby.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies and first responders were first at the scene helping the victims.
According to BSO Fire Rescue, the women started having problems with the boat around noon.
The airboat later got stuck and as they were trying to diagnose what was wrong, it took off and stranded them, authorities said.
Officials said that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and BSO took nearly two hours to find the women.
After locating both women, authorities sent two airboats and two choppers to help with the rescue.
One woman involved in the incident suffered a broken leg and was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
The cause of the incident and why the airboat lost control are still being investigated.
While crews were investigating why the boat was no longer moving, it suddenly jutted and ejected both passengers into the water
The airboat kept going until dense marsh stopped it and with the propeller still whirling, the boat sailed far away. The women then called in their own emergency on a cell phone.
“We dedicated two airboats, two helicopters and several ground resources to first locate the victims and then bring them back to shore,” said Battalion Chief Michael Kane, a spokesman for Broward County Fire Rescue.
“The most difficult time we had was just where they were,” he said. “Once we located where they were and we did that by helicopter, we were able to route the airboats to make contact.”
Fire rescue crews said that the women are a student and a researcher from Florida International University.
FIU responded to the incident saying the women were “conducting a vegetation sampling as part of a research project aboard an airboat,” the statement said in part.
BSO authorities said the woman that was airlifted did not sustain life-threatening injuries.
Watch the 4 p.m. report below as Kane gives an update on how rescue crews located the stranded women: