The boat was caught in a storm Saturday night. It was a “suspected human smuggling operation”.
Among other things, the coast guard is looking for the missing with ships.
dho. /(Reuters) After a boat belonging to suspected people smugglers capsized off the coast of the American state of Florida, emergency services are looking for 39 missing people.
The Coast Guard said it was alerted on Tuesday after a “good Samaritan” rescued a survivor who was clinging to the capsized ship.
The survivor told authorities after his rescue that he left the Bimini Islands in the Bahamas, about 80 kilometers east of Miami, in a boat with 39 other people Saturday night.
According to the survivor, the group’s boat capsized when encountering rough weather about 45 miles (72.4 kilometers) east of Fort Pierce Inlet, off Florida’s Atlantic coast. No one was wearing a life jacket, according to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard searched for possible survivors by ship and by air. The coast guard said on Twitter about the capsized boat: “This is a suspected human smuggling operation.”
In Florida waters, it’s not uncommon for ships full of people en route to the United States to capsize or be held up. On Friday, the Coast Guard rescued 88 Haitians from an overloaded sailing ship west of the Bahamas.