Washington, July 2 (IANS) A 51-year-old retired US astronaut who was on a stationary jet ski, a small vehicle which skims across the surface of water and is driven like a a motorcycle, died when his son crashed into his machine with another jet ski.

Captain Alan G Poindexter, a two-time shuttle astronaut, was on a stationary jet ski with his 22-year-old son Sunday afternoon when his elder son, aged 26, crashed into them with another one, Daily Mail reported.

Zachary hit the rear of the jet ski his father and brother were on. Captain Poindexter was then knocked off his jet ski, Pensacola News Journal quoted an emergency responder as saying.

Poindexter was pulled from the water around at Little Sabine Bay, Pensacola beach in Florida where friends tried to revive him with CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

He was rushed to a hospital where he died shortly thereafter, said a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official.