Man dies after boat overturns off Fort Lauderdale

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A man has died after a boat overturned Wednesday night in the ocean off Fort Lauderdale, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman said.

German Diaz, 76, died after he and four family members were fishing in a 16-foot boat about a mile off the coast, FWC spokesman Jorge Pino said Thursday.

The Hollywood family was boating when weather conditions took a turn for the worse, so the boaters tied a line to a buoy, Pino said.

As the weather got worse, they tried to untie the line, but it got caught in the propeller and the boat began to take on water, Pino said.

Everyone but Diaz was able to hold onto the overturned boat.

A Broward Sheriff's Office flight medic spotted them in the water with night-vision goggles.

"The visibility out there without night-vision goggles was complete darkness," medic Steve Krivjanik Jr. said. "We didn't know if the boat that we were getting called for was capsized."

Diaz was trapped underneath the boat. Divers eventually found Diaz, who was wearing a life jacket.

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