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2 women dead, 1 critically injured after pontoon boat crashes on Maine lake
No one in the boat was wearing lifejackets, officials said.
Two New York women were killed and another was critically injured Saturday afternoon when a pontoon boat crashed in a Maine lake.
The incident happened at about 1:30 p.m. when seven people were on an 18-foot pontoon boat in the upper reaches of Flagstaff Lake, according to a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife release. The lake is north of Sugarloaf Mountain.
“The boat was traveling towards Flagstaff Lake, and when they were in front of the beach area of the Cathedral Pines Campground, the bow of their pontoon boat started to go under,” officials said. “The driver, John Morris, age 50 of Eustis, attempted to raise the bow, but it continued to go under and the boat flipped, throwing all seven passengers into the water approximately 180 feet from shore.”
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Witnesses on the shore and on the lake rushed to the scene to assist and brought all seven occupants to shore.
“Three of the passengers were unresponsive and CPR was performed on all three,” the release said.
Farhana Nasir, 53, of Selden, New York, and Kiran Akbar, 23, of Lake Grove, New York, died at the scene. Noor Nasir, 22, of New York, was taken in a medical helicopter to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and was in critical condition.
“No one in the boat was wearing lifejackets,” officials said. “The initial investigation indicates that alcohol is not a factor in the crash.”
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The crash remains under investigation.
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