The widow of a Belgian firefighter killed last year in the East River crash of an FDNY fire boat filed a federal lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from the city in his sudden and shocking death.
Victim Johnny Beernaert, 53, died in the June 17, 2022, wreck where the department craft Marine 1 Bravo collided with a charter boat around 10 p.m. while cruising in the East River.
The Brooklyn Federal Court suit, filed by his wife Heidi Vermandel only days after the first anniversary of the tragedy, alleges the FDNY boat was “unfit for voyaging that evening … unsafe and unseaworthy.”
The widow “suffered severe personal injuries … negligent infliction of emotional distress,” the nine-page court filing alleged. “She was in the zone of being killed due to the collision … and as a result, suffered great physical and emotional trauma.”
The spouse was aboard the fire boat with Beernaert, who suffered a fatal head injury in the crash off lower Manhattan and died at Bellevue Hospital.
Vermandel marked the anniversary of her husband’s death on Instagram.
“(One) year without you!” she wrote. “From intense happiness to intense sadness. Without saying goodbye. I miss you in everything around me.
“We still had so many plans,” she added. “I still can’t believe this was forever ago.”
After more than a year, the U.S. Coast Guard, the lead agency in the boat crash investigation, have not said if they have concluded their investigation and if they have determined who was responsible for the crash.
Repeated emails about the findings of their investigation have not been returned.
In the days that followed the crash, four FDNY members — a lieutenant, a captain, a battalion chief and the firefighter who piloted the vessel. — were pulled from their regular duties and assigned to administrative jobs within the Marine Unit.
The firefighter driving the boat was on duty at the time of the crash, but he was the sole Marine Unit member on board, which is against the…
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