VIDEO: Coast Guard Investigating Fatal Dive Boat Accident off of Hillsboro Inlet
A rogue wave capsized vessel as it approached the inlet, say witnesses.

Posted Sunday, November 25, 2012

 
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MIAMI — Coast Guard crews are investigating the cause of a vessel capsizing with 23 persons aboard off of Hillsboro Inlet, Fla., Thursday.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Miami received a report of a dive vessel, Coral Princess, capsizing and 23 people were in the water at approximately 1 p.m. Thursday.

Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale smallboat crews were launched and arrived on scene where Broward County Sheriffs Office, commercial salvage and several good Samaritans had recovered all of the people from the water. Coast Guard and partner agencies transferred all 23 people to shore where EMS crews were waiting to transport four people with injuries to a local hospital.

Nina Poppelsdorf, 54, died after being transported to a local hospital. Poppelsdorf was part of a group of about two dozen passengers aboard the 45 foot dive catamaran. The group was returning from a Thanksgiving Day dive outing, when they were hit with an 8 to 10 foot wave, which flipped the vessel over.

Poppelsdorf, a New Mexico resident, had made the trip to South Florida specifically for the dive trip, with her nephew from Pennsylvania.

to the Associated Press, the Coral Princess is a Corinthian catamaran owned by South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach, FL.

The cause of the capsizing is under investigation.