{"id":308978,"date":"2026-06-16T08:24:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308978\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T08:24:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:24:05","slug":"2-dead-and-1-missing-after-airboat-capsizes-in-florida-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308978\/","title":{"rendered":"2 dead and 1 missing after airboat capsizes in Florida river"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two people are dead, and one person remains missing after an airboat capsized on the Istokpoga Canal in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/15\/us-news\/six-men-allegedly-kidnapped-two-people-at-vacation-resort-tortured-them-at-boat-ramp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida\u00a0<\/a>on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (<a href=\"https:\/\/myfwc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">FWC<\/a>), emergency crews responded to a single-vessel incident in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/09\/us-news\/accused-palisades-fire-arsonist-jonathan-rinderknecht-comes-face-to-face-with-victims\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Highlands County.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Authorities said seven people were traveling by airboat to the Kissimmee River when the accident occurred.<\/p>\n<p>As the vessel approached the river from the Istokpoga Canal, it entered a deeper section of water and began taking on water. The <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/20\/world-news\/5-dead-after-tourist-hovercraft-suddenly-capsizes-in-siberia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">airboat then capsized<\/a>, causing the passengers to go overboard.<\/p>\n<p>Four individuals were able to make it safely to shore, while an immediate search was launched for the remaining three passengers.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said two of the missing individuals were later located and pronounced dead at the scene. The search for the third missing passenger is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.33159948;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39688988\" width=\"786\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/highlands-county-sheriff-s-office-131114512.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial view of boats gathered on a river for a search and rescue operation.\" class=\"wp-image-39688988\"  \/>Two dead, 1 missing after airboat capsizes in Florida\u2019s Istokpoga Canal on Monday. Highland County Sheriff<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39688986\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/florida-lake-wales-kissimmee-river-131114476.jpg\" alt=\"Three people riding an airboat on the Kissimmee River, with cypress trees reflected in the water.\" class=\"wp-image-39688986\"  \/>Seven people were aboard the vessel when it took on water and capsized while approaching the Kissimmee River. Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The FWC and the\u00a0Highlands County\u00a0Sheriff\u2019s Office offered their deepest condolences to the families affected by the tragedy.<\/p>\n<p>The incident remains under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people are dead, and one person remains missing after an airboat capsized on the Istokpoga Canal in\u00a0Florida\u00a0on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9271,6818,10822,28,30,29,4278],"class_list":["post-308978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-boat-crashes","tag-boats","tag-deaths","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}