Image for representation purposes only A tugboat captain has pleaded guilty to federal seaman’s manslaughter charges after admitting he failed to follow basic maritime safety rules before a collision in Florida’s Biscayne Bay that killed three children attending a sailing camp. Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, of Miami, changed his plea to guilty this week after initially pleading not guilty to charges linked to the July 28, 2025, accident. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison, although prosecutors, his defense team and the victims’ families have jointly recommended a sentence of one year in prison followed by six months of supervised release. A federal judge, who is not required to follow that recommendation, is scheduled to sentence him on Oct. 13. According to court records, Insua was operating the 25-foot tugboat Wood Chuck, pushing a construction barge across Biscayne Bay, when it struck a stalled 17-foot sailboat carrying a 19-year-old counselor and five children from a nearby sailing camp. The construction barge was 108 feet long, 28 feet wide and weighed 149 gross tons. It was loaded with construction debris, and its forward view was blocked by a deckhouse and crane. Prosecutors said no crewmember had been assigned as a lookout. The sailboat had lost wind and drifted into the tugboat’s path. Because Insua’s view ahead was obstructed and there was no lookout, he did not see the sailboat before the barge ran over it, trapping it beneath the hull. Three children, aged seven, 10 and 13, became trapped under the wreckage and drowned. The counselor and two other children, aged eight and 12, survived after being dragged beneath the barge. Prosecutors said a forensic review of Insua’s cellphone found internet activity while the tugboat was underway, including at or near the time of the collision. “Three children lost their lives in a tragedy that never should have happened,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the S