TAMPA (TIP): A 27-year-old Indian student died as his watercraft collided with another in Florida, according to media reports. Venkataramana Pittala from Telangana was driving a rented Yamaha personal watercraft (PWC) that collided with another PWC operated by a 14-year-old boy from the South Florida mainland on Saturday, March 9, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Pittala, a student at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, was set to graduate in May, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise funds to send his mortal remains back to his family in Telangana.
Personal watercraft are tandem boats often referred to as jet skis, the name of a popular model manufactured by Kawasaki.
It is unclear if anyone else was injured, a newspaper reported.
The teen was listed as “uninjured” in the FWC report. It lists arrests as “pending”, the report said.
The FWC released an incident report on Monday with the names of the two people involved but no details on what transpired.
“This is a two vessel (PWC) accident resulting in one fatality,” the report states. “The vessels collided with each other.”
According to FWC, 14 is the minimum age to operate a personal watercraft in Florida.
The report doesn’t state whether authorities have determined fault. Both personal watercrafts were rented, it said.
Tag: TAMPA
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27-year-old Indian-origin student dies in jet ski accident in Florida
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An Indian American pilot and two others die in Florida plane crash
TAMPA, FL (TIP): Indian American Jemin Patel tragically lost his life, along with two others, when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 he was piloting crashed into a mobile home park in Clearwater, Florida, last Thursday, February 2.
The victims of the devastating crash included Patel, aged 54, and two women who were inside one of the mobile homes at the time of the accident. Clearwater officials identified the two women as Martha Parry, an 86-year-old resident of the mobile home park, and Mary Ellen Pender, aged 54, according to the local media.
Following the crash, which occurred around 7 pm, a fire engulfed four mobile homes within the park. It was reported that Patel had notified authorities of an engine failure shortly before the plane descended and crashed into the mobile home park. This tragic incident serves as a somber reminder of the unpredictable nature of aviation accidents and their far-reaching consequences.
The ill-fated aircraft had departed earlier that day from Vero Beach Regional Airport, located approximately 34 miles from Melbourne Beach. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aircraft registry records, the plane is registered to Control Data Inc. of Indianapolis.
The FAA reported that Patel, who was the sole person on board, had communicated an engine failure. Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the crash, with the NTSB taking the lead and providing any updates.
The Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department, the first agency to respond to the incident, stated on the X platform that they received the crash call at 7:08 PM that evening, and their officers arrived at the scene by 7:15 PM.
Patel, a licensed pilot, was described as “a well-known and trusted figure in the skies above Melbourne Beach” in an obituary featured on a website.