A trip to Florida almost turned into a tragedy for a group of Quebecers who had taken an excursion to the Everglades National Park to celebrate their 35th birthday.
The hydrofoil excursion was to allow Quebecers to explore marshy regions of the national park.
However, the situation took a worrying turn when the boat they were in capsized in the middle of alligators on Friday afternoon.
Ten passengers were on board.
A maneuver by the driver is believed to be the cause of the capsize, when he attempted to approach a nearby alligator by making a particularly tight turn.
The passengers who fell into the water tried in vain to refloat the boat. The group found themselves stuck in the swamp for around ten minutes before help arrived on the scene.
“We were still stressed. There was a lady with us who called the police. The driver for his part called for reinforcements, then it took about 10-15 minutes before boats came to rescue us,” explains Philippe Noël, who specifies that the group had water approximately “until the navel”.
“We had just observed alligators not far away, so it was still a very stressful situation,” he adds.
The group was welcomed on the platform by a real committee; local media, police, politicians and helicopters were indeed on site.
Fortunately, no one got hurt.
Mr. Noël also denounced the lack of training of the driver, who was arrested because he did not have a valid license authorizing him to drive the boat he was in charge of.
For all the details, listen to our report in the video at the beginning of the article.