A private boat slammed into a pier at Logan Airport in East Boston shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, throwing four people onto a rocky shoreline and killing Elizabeth Dankert, 24, of Andover, who was pronounced dead early Thursday at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dankert had boarded the small boat in the Seaport on Wednesday evening with two friends, both 23, while the vessel was being operated by a 40-year-old man, according to officials. Boston Emergency Medical Services said crews carefully extricated the four patients from the rocks in coordination with Massport Fire, after dispatch recordings reported responders giving CPR to one person and treating another for head injuries. One of the people on board was able to make a 911 call on a phone.
The boat struck the Runway 4R pier off Perimeter Road, and the crash forced a runway shutdown overnight. The Suffolk district attorney's office said Thursday that the passengers were taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital and were being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening. The vessel was described as a Key West brand center console recreational fishing boat with two Yamaha motors, and the center console was heavily damaged in the crash.
Lee Gordon said the boat was taken from its Seaport location without authorization and operated outside the knowledge and control of Freedom Boat Club. He said the vessel was accessed without the club's knowledge by someone who was able to gain access to the marina, and added that it was not someone who made a reservation because the club was closed for the night. Gordon said the company was cooperating with investigators.
Kevin Hayden, the Suffolk district attorney, said he offered his deepest sympathies to Dankert's family and friends and assured them that all aspects of the tragedy were under investigation. He also thanked EMS personnel and other first responders for their exceptional treatment and recovery work under extremely difficult conditions. Union College said Dankert played soccer there and graduated in 2024, calling her an exceptional student-athlete whose passing was a profound loss for the campus community.
The crash leaves investigators with one central question: how a private boat left a marina without authorization, reached an airport pier and ended in a fatal wreck that shut down a runway and sent four people to the hospital. For Dankert's family, classmates and teammates, the answer will matter less than the loss itself, but the probe now turns to who took the vessel, how it was used and whether the sequence that ended on the rocks could have been stopped.
