MIAMI — Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that a tugboat captain is facing a criminal charge for a 2025 crash with a youth sailing camp boat in Biscayne Bay that left three young girls dead.
Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, of Miami, is facing a seaman’s manslaughter charge in connection with the July 28, 2025 crash off Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island.
Authorities said, among other things, that Lopez Insua failed to have a proper lookout and even appeared to be shopping online at the time of the crash, which led to the drowning deaths of Miami Yacht Club campers Mila Yankelevich, 7, Erin Ko Han, 13, and Arielle Buchman, 10.
A 19-year-old camp counselor and two children, one of whom was identified as Calena Areyan Gruber, 7, survived.
Lopez Insua, authorities said, was pushing a construction barge with the 25-foot “Wood Chuck” at the time of the crash, which prosecutors said happened after the sailboat stalled in the barge’s path due to lack of wind.
Authorities said the camp counselor stood up and tried to alert the barge and tug to no avail.
Prosecutors said Lopez Insua had already had “near misses” with sailboats in that section of Biscayne Bay in his 12 years operating the “Wood Chuck” and “knew, or should have known, that the position of the deckhouse and the crane on the barge portion of the Vessel obstructed the waterline view of a pilot operating the Vessel from the tugboat’s pilothouse.”
Additionally, they said the vessel wasn’t equipped with cameras or a radar system that could have aided in forward visibility.
Authorities also said that they found that Lopez Insua’s cellphone was “unlocked during the transit time leading up to the collision and indicated activity on internet marketplaces, including at the time when the collision occurred.”
The tug and barge were hauling construction debris to Di Lido Island at the time of the crash.
U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quinones said in a news release that the allegations add up to “a preventable loss of life on our waterways, including the failure to follow basic maritime safety rules and cellphone use during transit at or near the time of the collision.”
“We will present the evidence in court with care and professionalism,” he said in part.
If convicted of seaman’s manslaughter, Lopez Insua faces up to 10 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Federal court records did not list any upcoming hearings in the case as of Tuesday afternoon.
The crash is also the subject of at least one lawsuit in Miami-Dade County court.
Read the court documents:
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