Tourist dies in blowhole tragedy

The holiday picture that captures man's final moments. Picture Rocco Piganelli/Associated Press

A family's happy holiday snap has captured the last few minutes of a man's life before he fell into a blowhole in Hawaii and died.

Rocco Piganelli took this picture of his daughter Piper Piganelli and Marley and Maddie Meyer but just moments later the man seen in the spray at the right fell to his death at Nakalele Point in Maui, Hawaii.

Mr Piganelli told Associated Press that he watched the man spiral down the blowhole, pop up briefly before disappearing when the next wave hit.

The 44-year-old man, identified as David Potts of San Anselmo, California, has not been found since Saturday afternoon.

Mr Piganelli said he stared in horror as he watched a large wave push the man into the hole.

“We all stared for like 30 seconds and then I realized — he’s gone. He’s down there,” Mr Piganelli said. “I felt like I was going to throw up.

“The girl who was with him let out this horrifying scream,” he said.

He and other tourists scrambled over a cliff to look for the man out in the ocean as powerful waves crashed against sharp rocks.

“In my heart, I kind of knew he wasn’t coming out,” Mr Piganelli said. “I wanted to give him hope because it was all I could do.”