Florida Fish and Wildlife officials are investigating an airboat accident that left a Homosassa woman seriously injured. The accident happened on Sunday by the Withlachoochee River when 31 year old Nicole Aspinwall was with 37 year old Robert Miller and her children.
Investigators for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report the four were parked on the dry riverbed at the Rutland Flats off the Withlacoochee River. The airboat wasn’t running. At about 1:30 p.m., Miller cranked the motor, thinking that Aspinwall was getting into the airboat but she was behind it.
The report states Aspinwall may have been reaching into the back area of the airboat to retrieve something when she was struck by the three-blade propeller and received life-threatening injuries. She was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital.