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The Coast Guard will continue the search for 38 missing people after capsizing their boat off the east coast of Florida, after the recovery of a dead body and the rescue of a castaway, reported this institution.
According to the only survivor so far, a total of 40 people were on the boat. The Coast Guard stated it may have been a migrant smuggling trip.
Captain Jo-Ann Burdian, commander of Coast Guard Sector Miami, said at a press conference this morning in Miami Beach that the search by sea and air for the people who fell into the sea would continue today because time is against them, but warned that it cannot go on forever.
The survivor of the shipwreck, which occurred last Sunday due to bad weather and heavy seas, is in stable condition in a hospital in the Fort Pierce area, about 200 kilometers north of Miami.
According to authorities, it was a private boat sailing in the area, the “Signet Intruder,” which rescued the castaway Tuesday, who was clinging to the 25-foot (7.6 meters) boat that capsized about 40 miles (64 km) east of the Fort Pierce inlet.
Officer Burdian did not provide details about the person rescued or the remaining occupants of the vessel that left Bimini in the Bahama Islands on Saturday night.
He also would not discuss the identity of the deceased whose body was recovered in recent hours out of respect for his privacy and dignity, he said, and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of the shipwreck.
Authorities are investigating whether it was a case of human smuggling, he stressed.
As of this morning, an area at sea equivalent to the area of the state of New Jersey, which is 8,723 square miles (22,500 square km), had been searched by air and sea.
According to the survivor, the ship set sail from Bimini, one of the islands of the Bahamas archipelago, and the rough seas encountered during the voyage caused it to capsize.
No one on board was wearing life jackets, according to the man.
