Two fatal victims of Friday night boat crash off Key Biscayne are identified

Alexander Lugo
·2 min read

Authorities on Monday identified two victims who died Friday night in a boat crash off the coast of Key Biscayne.

Two passengers on an 18-foot Cobia were killed: Pablo Castro Diaz, 80, and Osvaldo Castro, 42, both of Miami. Three others on the same boat were injured: Daysi Sandoval, 51, Osvaldo Sandoval, 12, and Angel Castro Jr., 11, all from Miami.

The passengers on the other boat involved in the crash, a 30-foot Picnic Boat were Stefan Johansson, 62, Daysi Johansson, 55, and Lilly Sanchez, 55, all of Coral Gables, and Gloria Abinader, 54, Joseph Abinader, 58, Sharon Spillis, 61, and George Spillis, 61, all of Miami.

A newly released report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is investigating, says that the crash happened near the Key Biscayne Yacht Club between Nixon Beach and West Point at around 10:30 p.m.

Nearby good Samaritans helped the victims of the crash until the U.S. Coast Guard arrived.

The 30-foot boat sank in about 11 feet of water, the FWC report states, and five of its seven passengers were ejected in the crash. All passengers onboard the Picnic Boat sustained minor injuries.

A person involved in the collision notified Coast Guard Sector Miami that 12 people were in the water about a mile west of Key Biscayne, according to the Coast Guard.

A Coast Guard rescue swimmer initially found two critically injured people and transferred one of them to a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crew who brought that survivor to Jackson Memorial. In all, three people who had been on the Cobia were taken to the hospital but only one survived.

The other injured survivors were taken to Mercy Hospital.

“On behalf of the Coast Guard and our partner agencies, we’d like to offer our sincerest condolences to the families and friends who lost their loved ones,” said Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Tuxhorn, Coast Guard Sector Miami search and rescue mission coordinator. “The Coast Guard and our local partner agencies quickly responded and exhaustively worked together on this search and rescue case.”