A Horror Story

Off the many white beaches of Florida, a familiar sight in the air is the colorful parasailing "chute" with tourists suspended below it, being pulled along by a tow boat.

The parasailing industry has exploded worldwide, with a corresponding increase in the number of injuries and fatalities. According to the Parasailing Safety Council, there is currently no system in place to monitor just how many of these accidents occur. The activity remains unregulated in the state of Florida.

One incident in Hawaii involved a young Japanese female tourist who, despite being described as a happy person having a great vacation (as reported by her female companion), inexplicably threw herself out of a parasailing two-seater bench in a suicide dive while suspended high in the air.  

At least that was the theory presented by a forensic firm well-known for its computer animations. The firm investigated the accident by conducting multiple tests with dummies, and couldn't find a single accidental reason for the death; they concluded that suicide was the best explanation for the tragedy. 

One witness, however, testified that the lines attaching the parasail to the chair "appeared to come off" from "where they were fastened." The parasail then "billowed backwards," the chair "tipped forward," and the victim fell out feet first, "flailing as if trying to climb back into the chair." Similarly, a second witness testified that the "para[sail] deflated and [that the] cord attached to the chair came down." She further stated that the chair tilted to the left and forward, and the victim slid down as if she were coming down a slide.

There was no seatbelt in the bench seat.

Another accident occurred in Florida. A recently-engaged couple visiting from the northeast went to a local parasailing outfit to take them up in the air for a thrill ride. Many of the other parasailing companies in the area were closed that day due to threatening weather conditions. The National Weather Service had issued a small craft advisory.

A cold front was on its way in. Anyone who knows the gulf along the west coast of Florida knows that when cold fronts roll through from the northwest in late fall and winter, blustery conditions accompany them. 

The parasailing company, whom we'll call Para Inc., had three different sizes of parasails - a large one for calm conditions, a small one for windy conditions, and a medium size for in between. They could handle anything. That day, though, they used the largest sail - the one for the calmest conditions. 

The couple's twenty-minute ride had gone smoothly, but by the time their ride was supposed to be over, it was really only beginning. Instead of a thriller ride, they got a killer ride.

While they were up in the air, enjoying their view of the beach and the Gulf of Mexico, the cold front snapped in. With gusts of winds so strong that the force in the airborne chute began to drag the tow boat backward toward shore, threatening amounts of sea water began to slosh over the transom and into the boat.

The captain, fearing that his boat was about to sink, ordered his very reluctant first mate to cut the tow rope. After a short but fierce and near-mutinous argument, the rope was cut, and the parasail was set free to drift in the 25 mph wind. 

The parasail instantly became a parachute, dropping its suspended two seater bench down to the water. Because winds were dragging the parasail as it dropped, however, the back of the bench hit the water, and the bench rolled over backward on the surface at least twice (according to a witness) as it was being dragged, throwing out both occupants. 

The chute continued to drag the bench across the water, and it suddenly became clear to onlookers that the young man was still attached, entangled in the rope. The chute, blown by the heavy winds, lifted up from the water, with the man dangling by an ankle.

The parasail took the victim over land, where he struck a concrete sea wall, a dirt mound, six vehicles, and two fences at a tennis court. His head became lodged under the second fence, and the still-taut parasail tow rope cut through his ankle, dismembering his foot. Within a few days he died of septic shock, leaving a fiance and four young children from a former marriage.

Para Inc was sued for a million dollars by the family of the dead man. The attorney who represented Para Inc. contacted FACTS to study this accident, but he made it clear at the first meeting that he already had a theory on how the accident had occurred.

The attorney's theory was that the victim had purposely tied the rope to himself. Of course, it was not unexpected that he would espouse a theory which conveniently shifted much of the culpability onto the victim. Unfortunately, the  theory was unsupported by any evidence. 

Some things begged explanation: how the man managed to grab the rope and wrap it around him while everything was being dragged swiftly through the rough water; why he even wanted to grab the rope in the first place (the attorney proposed that he was trying to retrieve a camera bag, which theoretically was still sitting - undisturbed - on the benchseat which had already overturned at least twice).

After studying the events, it was concluded that the victim could not have grabbed the rope and tie it around his body. The dacron tow rope had become wrapped around the bench, entangling the victim, when the bench hit the water and rolled twice over backwards. 

It was also concluded that Para Inc's use of their largest parasail, when a cold front was known to be approaching, was imprudent, to say the least.

The attorney decided to look for another expert who would be more agreeable, but not before stating, during a conference call with the insurance company representative, how ludicrous (the actual word used was "asinine") he thought our conclusions were.

There was no opportunity to discuss strategy (and cutting losses) because of this attorney's insistence that his pet theory be parrotted. He wasn't willing to accept that there were glaring, fatal weaknesses in his case. He obviously hadn't intended to hire anyone for advice and expert guidance, but to unquestioningly advocate his position.

The attorney continued on, and took this case to the bitter end. The civil trial finally ended seven years after the fatal accident.

The jury nailed Para Inc. with a $4 million judgement -  $1 million for each of the victim's four children, and $3 million more than the family had been asking for from the beginning.