The parasailing victim’s father says doctors subjected the family to ‘4 hours of misery’ before they told him the teens had died

The father of a skydiving victim says his family went through “four hours of suffering for the doctors” before he was told that two teenagers had died.

Jessica Lee Hayes, 15, and Michael Connelly, 13, died after falling about 400 feet onto a rock face on the Greek resort island of Rhodes on Wednesday.

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The couple were parasailing with 15-year-old Michael’s older brother James, who survived the fall but remains in an induced coma.

A rope securing their parachute to a speedboat broke as they sailed past the fishing village of Lindos.

Jessica’s father, Tony Hayes, of Kettering, Northants, spoke today of his heartbreak at losing his “special and beautiful” daughter.

Tony also said that James is fighting for his life in the hospital, saying, “We have no idea if James is going to recover, but we just want to take him home.”

Tony added: “One report we heard was that three of them had been found and were all in ambulances, and the one who was going to the hospital was more seriously injured. That was James.

“And they told us for about four hours that James was the worst and the other two were just in fracture clinics before finally telling us they were dead.

“They were dead in the hospital the whole time, and yet we were being attacked with false hopes that everyone was okay.

“The way the nurse told us, after four hours, that they had died. There was no empathy. He almost screamed it. It was so severe.

“The police came to get their passports during those four hours, but they did not say why they needed them.

“I said, ‘Please tell me what’s going on. They are alive? The passports were taken to identify the bodies. But they wouldn’t tell us. It took four hours for us to find out what happened. They made us suffer for four hours. “

Jessica was a beautiful, beautiful lady

Tony, Jessica’s dad

Paying tribute to his “popular” girl, Tony said: “Jessica was a beautiful, beautiful lady. Extremely popular and very special.

Mikey, his cousin, exactly the same. They have been stolen from us and we are devastated. “

Speaking from a hospital in Rhodes, where his nephew James is in a coma with traumatic injuries, Tony added: “We are doing very badly. It’s like the world is coming to an end.

“One minute the sun was shining, we were sitting on the beach beckoning them and the next it was chaos.

“They did not return in the boat, the hotel did not tell us anything, the person who was driving the boat did not return.”

Tony was heartbreakingly forced to identify his daughter’s body yesterday.

He said, “That was the worst part.

“There was a massive storm, thunder and lightning. All roads were flooded everywhere. It was weird.

“Now we are trapped in this hotel. Everyone around us has fun on normal vacations.

“We have a nephew fighting for his life and two other children have died. We are not doing very well.”

‘WHY WAS IT ALLOWED TO HAPPEN?’

Tony has called for an urgent investigation into how the accident occurred and said the family had been recommended to hire lawyers immediately.

Greek law prohibits three people from parasailing at a time, and the legal minimum age to participate in this water sport is 16 years old.

Local businessman Nikos Mallios, 51, owner of the water sports business used by the family, was arrested by police last night and appeared before prosecutors today, but has been released without charge.

Rhodes Coast Guard Chief Spyros Tatis is reportedly now leading an investigation.

Tony said: “Something went wrong somewhere because I’ve been reading that only two people are allowed on a parasailing trip at a time, yet three of them were allowed in there.

“Why did they allow that?

“We asked them if they were old enough to do it and they told us that anyone from the age of three could do it.

“That is not right.”

One source said that the rope that was towing the three “clearly wasn’t strong enough to pull all three at the same time.”

“The strong winds carried them across the sky and moments later they crashed into a cliff on the beach,” they said.

Greek sources close to the investigation told The Sun that other passengers were on the speedboat at the time, and the police seized their crucial video evidence.

They said: “There were GoPro footage of other tourists on the ship that showed exactly what happened, the rope broke.

“Everything has been turned over to the police for investigation.”

A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said yesterday: “We are supporting the family of two Britons after their death in Rhodes and we are in contact with the Greek authorities.”

A tourist who saw the glider lying against the rocks after the accident said: “The fire trucks came to the scene, but they couldn’t actually get close to the accident due to the lack of roads around the hillside.”