Two social media influencers drowned to death after they refused to wear life jackets on a speedboat that sank off the Brazilian coast. The incident took place on September 29. Citing local reports, the New York Post reported that 37-year-old Aline Tamara Moreira de Amorim and 27-year-old Beatriz Tavares da Silva Faria ignored pleas to wear the life-saving gear because they didn’t want to ruin their tan in photos. Then, tragedy struck after an overcrowded boat was sunk by a wave on a stretch of coast known as the Devil’s Throat off the coast of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“Some didn’t want to put them (life jackets) on because they were taking selfies,” Sao Vincente Police Commissioner Marcos Alexandra Alfino said, based on testimony by the boat’s captain. “They said that they get in the way of their tanning,” Mr Alfino added, per the Post.
The incident came to light following investigators’ inquiries with the boat’s skipper. The captain of the boat, one of five survivors, said that the two victims boarded the speedboat to shore with four other influencers after partying on a luxury yacht with friends off the coast of Sao Paulo. The captain said he was ordered to take the six influencers to the shore despite his boat having a maximum capacity of five passengers. He added that the boat was too heavy to save after the wave struck.
The captain told the cops that he tried desperately to save his passengers, but the two victims refused to wear life jackets on the boat, believing it would ruin their photos and tans.
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Ms Faria’s body was recovered by Brazil’s Maritime Firefighters after it drifted out to sea. Ms Amorim’s body was found washed up on the coast of Itaquitanduva Beach a week later, cops said.
Police are now trying to establish if their deaths were a tragic accident or preventable. “All this is being determined very calmly to conclude if the fatalities were based on recklessness or negligence,” Mr Alfino explained.
Meanwhile, moments before she drowned, Ms Amorim posted photos to her social media showing her aboard the luxury yacht.
Vanessa Audrey da Silva, one of the five survivors, said she had managed to scramble into a life jacket and survived by clinging to rocks. “There was a moment in the water when no one could see anyone. I was fighting for life,” she said.
