RedactedNarrative: On October 23rd at approximately 11:38 AM, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was dispatched to an overturned airboat in the northeast marsh on Orange Lake involving three children and one adult.  WITNESS 1, another boater in the vicinity, had reported the overturned airboat to dispatch.  While enroute, I spoke to WITNESS 1 who stated that he could see all subjects walking around the overturned airboat on the marsh island waving a flag for help and that they all appeared to be uninjured.  He also stated that the only way to reach them was by airboat.
  As I was enroute, I requested dispatch to notify Alachua County Sheriff's Office (ASO) to determine if they could respond with their airboat, since our airboat was currently deployed to hurricane relief in the southwest.  Soon after, an officer notified me that he could bring an airboat from Gilchrist County.  I then canceled the request of ASO for their boat.
  I arrived at the Orange Lake boat ramp in Cross Creek at approximately 12:30 PM.  I approached some other airboaters who were parked in the lot and asked a gentleman if he knew about the overturned airboat. He replied that he had some friends on airboats who were with them now to help get the airboat turned back over.  He also said that the three children and one adult were fine and uninjured.  
  At approximately 1:30 PM, Gilchrist County arrived.  We launched his airboat and proceeded to the overturned airboat.  Once on site, the airboat was now uprighted and several other airboaters were attempting to turn it around to tow it back to the ramp.  The airboat is a 2003 14 foot Florida Homemade airboat with an auto motor and air prop for propulsion.  After a few minutes they were able to get it turned around and then began towing it back to the Marjorie Rawlings ramp with another airboat.  The four occupants of the overturned airboat had already been transported back to the ramp.  I photographed the airboat where it had overturned and recorded the coordinates of it.  We then returned to the ramp.
  At the boat ramp parking lot, I found the operator and its occupants, his three grandchildren.  I interviewed OP1 and had him complete a sworn written statement detailing the accident.  OP1 said he and his three grandchildren were just cruising along the airboat trail through the marsh at around 11:30 AM.  He was operating it south through the airboat trail on the eastern side of Orange Lake.  He said he then turned the airboat to the left to enter another airboat trail, and the airboat began to slide to the starboard side and collided with a small tree or bush on the starboard stern.  This caused the airboat to flip over onto its starboard side, ejecting OP1 and the three passengers.  OP1 and his three grandchildren landed safely out of the path of the airboat in the soft mucky marsh, and were all uninjured.  They then began waving their arms and a flag to alert nearby boaters.  Soon after, several other airboaters came across them and began assisting them.  One airboat transported OP1 and his grandchildren back to the ramp, while several others began pulling the airboat back upright and turning it around to tow back to the ramp.  OP1 said he had approximately 150 hours of experience operating airboats over the years.  He had all required vessel safety equipment aboard the vessel, including PFDs for each occupant, a fire extinguisher, whistle, and a Type IV throwable device.  
  