At Least 30 Dead After Haitian Boat Capsizes Near Bahamas
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Multiple people are dead and a hundred Haitian migrants are in the water near the Bahamas after a boat capsized late Monday night.
According to the United State Coast Guard, 30 people have been confirmed to be dead after the Haitian migrant vessel, an overloaded sail freighter, grounded and capsized 15 nautical miles off Staniel Key in the Bahamas.
Approximately 90 Haitians were rescued by the Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamaian Defense Force
A Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 helicopter crew attached to Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos responded and hoisted 13 people from the water after deploying a mass rescue raft.
Coast Guard pilot Lt. Morgan Roy said this was her first encounter with this sort of thing.
"Unfortunately, once again during our mission we didn't have our night vision goggles with us. It was very dark, low moon illumination, a scattered layer at about 1,300 feet made visibility not as good as it could have been," said Roy. "We had 30 knots of wind on the surface which made making the drops accurate to the vessel a little more difficult."
A Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 aircrew and an Air Station Clearwater HC-130 dropped food, supplies and eight additional life rafts to provide assistance.
The RBDF also sent a 108-foot patrol boat to assist with the rescue.
