While on their honeymoon in Hawaii, a couple was allegedly abandoned by a snorkeling tour group, and forced to swim to shore.
According to NBC News, Elizabeth Webster and Alexander Burckle filed a lawsuit last month, claiming that on Sept. 23, 2021, the captain of the Sail Maui’s Lanai Coast snorkel tour informed all 44 passengers, which included the newlyweds, that the boat would remain anchored in its current location for about an hour before moving onto another location.
Webster and Burckle claim they entered the water with the rest of the passengers around 10:50 a.m. and headed north, as instructed by the captain. The couple allegedly made their way back to the boat around 11:50 a.m., but after swimming for 15 minutes through increasingly choppy waters, they “still had not made progress towards the boat.”
The couple were unable to flag down the vessel as it moved onto its next location. Webster and Burckle allege in the suit that they attempted to swim in the same direction, but struggled “to swim in the ocean conditions.” Panic soon set in as the newlyweds grew fearful of drowning.
“Plaintiffs realized the Vessel had left them and was not coming back for them, and they decided that their only option for survival at that point was to return to shore,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiffs were extremely fearful and nervous about the decision because they were told in the safety briefing explicitly not to swim to Lanai and that shallow reefs were in the area.”
After swimming about half a mile, the couple reached the shore around 1 p.m., and were suffering from fatigue and dehydration.
Elizabeth Webster and her husband, Alexander Burckle, have filed a lawsuit against the Hawaii-based tour company.
The suit alleges a crew member initially counted 42 passengers before moving the tally to 44 after taking a second count. The passengers were allegedly moving around when the counting took place.
A passenger allegedly informed a crew member about Webster and Burckle swimming farther out in the ocean while on the boat, but was told that the couple already went back.
