Anyone looking to avoid long, traffic-filled drives between Fort Lauderdale and Key West now can thanks to a new direct flight set to take flight starting on Nov. 6.
Spirit Airlines will launch weekly flights on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Key West International Airport. Daily flights will begin on Dec. 18.
Tickets are already available for sale online at the airline’s website.
A Texas man who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run boating collision while snorkeling with his family in the Bahamas speaks out from his Miami hospital bed, according to local media.
Brent Slough, 42, of Prosper Texas was in the water snorkeling on June 30 when he was sliced by a boat that his wife claims “never stopped.”
In a recent interview with WSVN Miami, Slough told reporters he feels lucky to be alive.
Note: The names of the individuals involved in this crime have been excluded from this article to protect the victims.
A Florida Keys woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison this week after pleading guilty to various sex crimes involving children.
The woman, 37, pleaded guilty this week to sexual battery, incest and child neglect. She was arrested in January of 2024. Following her release, she will have to serve eight years of probation and will be subject to court-ordered supervision. She will also be required to register as a sex offender.
About 5 million aboveground pools have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission following the deaths of at least nine toddlers since 2002.
The CPSC officially recalled the pools due to a compression strap surrounding the exterior of the pool legs that could create a “foothold, allowing a child access to the pool, posing a drowning risk.”
From 2007 through 2022, the children — aged 22 months to 3 years old — have drowned in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, Missouri, California and Florida, where childhood drowning rates have soared in recent years. In data from the Florida Department of Health, it was reported that enough children drown in the state to fill several preschool classrooms.
An 81-year-old died Monday while with a commercial diving crew in the Florida Keys, according to local media.
Stephen Edward Plopper, of Carmel, Indiana, was swimming with a commercial dive boating around Sand Key Lighthouse off of Key West when members of the crew with the boat noticed him unresponsive in the water.
They immediately began CPR, according to reporting with The Miami Herald. Members of the Coast Guard who responded to the scene also performed life-saving measures and transported Plopper to the Lower Keys Medical Center where he died.
A fishing charter captain and his mate on the boat were accused of attempting to capsize a father and son on a kayak and now face criminal charges, according to local media.
James Christian Gagliardini, 52, of Marathon, Florida, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, reckless operation of a vessel and intentional harassing of a fisherman.
Gagliardini’s mate and crew member on the boat, 34-year-old Eric Robert Wink, of Marathon, Florida, faces a misdemeanor battery charge.
A trial is set to begin Monday, July 14, six years after 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon was killed and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, 27, was injured in a horrific crash involving a Tesla Model S on autopilot.
The crash happened on April 25, 2019, when the couple was on a date and had pulled onto the shoulder of Card Sound Road in the Upper Keys. The driver, George McGee, was driving his 2019 Tesla Model S about 62 mph through an intersection and crashed into Leon and Angulo’s vehicle, according to reporting from Reuters. The two were standing beside the vehicle.
Before the crash, McGee allegedly reached down to pick up a cellphone and ran both a stop sign and a stop light before hitting the car, reporters said in the article.
Katerina “Katy” Puig, who survived the 2022 Boca Chita boat crash that killed her classmate, was honored by the City of Miami, which proclaimed Thursday, July 10, as “Katy Puig Day,” according to The Miami Herald.
Puig was celebrated for her bravery Thursday by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez who presented her with a plaque while she attended the ceremony with her parents, Kathya and Rudy Puig.
Since the September 2022 crash that resulted in the tragic death of Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, 20-year-old Puig remains in physical therapy to regain motor skills. She currently requires the use of a wheelchair after suffering brain injuries from the crash.
Nearly three years after mail carrier Pamela Jane Rock was killed by a pack of dogs in Florida, a law has been created to increase safety and penalties for aggressive animal owners.
Per HB 593, which goes into effect July 1 in the state, owners of dogs considered to be “dangerous” must microchip their animals, secure them and have at least $100,000 in liability insurance. This bill defines a dangerous dog as those subject to an investigation which have killed or bitten a person to a “certain severity.” This severity is defined as a score of five or higher on the Dunbar bite scale, a system designed to classify dog bite severities.
The scale ranges as follows:
A Broward County man is facing criminal charges after authorities say he crashed his 21-foot center console vessel into a sailboat, resulting in at least one death in the Florida Keys.
Guy Erdman,61, of Oakland Park, was charged Wednesday with manslaughter, boating under the influence and several other misdemeanor charges, according to officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The crash happened on Dec. 27 around 8 p.m. with Erdman’s vessel and a sailboat that was anchored in Buttonwood Sound in Key Largo. Erdman was ejected from the vessel along with three passengers. A passing boater rescued Erman and two passengers from the water, but the third, Sydney Cole, 24, of North Carolina, was missing, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.
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