Video captures the dramatic moment when a paramotoring man saved a woman clinging on to her submerged car, after being plunged into a South Florida canal

Amanda Goh
Updated ·2 min read
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A collage showing Cristiano Piquet landing in a field to assist a woman who had fallen into a canal with her car.
A collage showing Cristiano Piquet landing in a field to assist a woman who had fallen into a canal with her car.Cristiano Piquet

  • Cristiano Piquet had been paramotoring with a friend, when he spotted a woman submerged in a canal with her car.

  • Piquet, a real estate agent, landed in a field and sought help from a man nearby to pull the lady ashore.

  • The dramatic rescue was captured on a video which Piquet shared on his Instagram account.

An Instagram video captured the dramatic moment when a man flying in a paramotoring device swooped in to rescue a woman submerged in a canal with her car, in Miami-Dade County on Sunday.

Cristiano Piquet, the founder of Piquet Realty, had been flying with a friend before church, when he saw a woman in a canal "holding for her life," he recounted in his video, which was posted on October 31, a day after the incident.

"Oh my God, I fell with my car in here," the woman told Piquet in the video.

Piquet's approximately one-and-a-half-minute footage showed the entire sequence of events — right from the moment he lands in an open field, to the moment the woman is pulled ashore. The woman can be heard screaming for help in the video. The footage also showed emergency rescue personnel at the scene.

Piquet had been recording his flight when an alligator splashing in the water caught his attention, he told Miami Herald.

"I turned around to get a shot of the alligator, and I saw a car under the water," Piquet said. "I flew closer to the car and I saw a woman on top."

That was when Piquet decided to land in an open field with his paramotor — a paraglider that's fitted with an engine — and run to her assistance, per Miami Herald. He then sought help from a man nearby, who pulled the stranded woman to the shore.

"So we threw her a rope, and she was free, she was alive," Piquet told WSVN 7 News Miami. "Everything happened so fast, and after we got her to safety, we called 911."

Six fire department units responded to the incident and combed the area to ensure there were no other casualties. They transported the woman to the hospital, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department told Miami Herald.

Piquet and the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

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