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Two Men Rescued After Airboat Sinks In Everglades

NORTHWEST BROWARD COUNTY (CBS4) - It was supposed to be a relaxing afternoon for a father and son in the Everglades, but everything changed when their airboat sank.

William Cazanas and his 13-year-old son Will had launched from Loxahatchee Everglades Tours in Parkland early Friday afternoon. About a dozen miles into their voyage, the airboat began to malfunction.

The father and son were stranded for several hours in the hot sun somewhere in the middle of a river of grass.

Photos from Chopper 4 show Will and his son waiting to be rescued.

Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue came to their rescue, loaded them onto their rescue airboat, and brought them back to dry land.

Before the two were rescued, they had to wait for BSO.

According to father Will, he said the trouble began when, "I let my son drive. That's what happened. He got up on the tall grass and the boat went up and the back went down and it doesn't take much. You see how low we are to the water? And the next thing we know we're stuck in two feet of water. We ain't going nowhere, you know."

About 12 miles from land, Cazanas called his wife Debbie for help. She knew that time was ticking and to find the two men in the dark was going to be a difficult task.

Once BSO found the men, they gave them supplies, like a radio, sunblock, water.

Debbie said her husband is a West Palm Beach Police Officer and her son is almost an Eagle Scout, so she knew the two of them were capable of handling themselves.

While waiting for the rescue, the father and son said they heard and saw alligators around them and were also getting concerned about nagging mosquitoes.

The father and son said they have no qualms about heading back out into these waters again.

According to BSO, the men had a happy ending because they knew what they were doing, they had charged cell phones and could give out their GPS coordinates.

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