Sole survivor says others tried to cling to capsized boat off Florida
Coast Guard Cutter Ibis’ crew searching for 39 people off Fort Pierce Inlet, Florida, Jan. 25, 2022. A good Samaritan reported to Sector Miami watchstanders at 8 a.m. that he had rescued a man clinging to a capsized vessel approximately 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet.
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MIAMI (AP) — The sole survivor of a capsized boat found near Florida’s coast says at least 15 other migrants tried to cling to the vessel after it overturned, but ultimately couldn’t hold on.
Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, of Colombia, told a Spanish-language news conference in Fort Pierce, Florida that there were also Dominicans, Haitians, Bahamians and Jamaicans among the group of 40 that set out for Florida from Bimini in the Bahamas on Jan. 22. His sister was part of the group but died.
Authorities say the boat capsized shortly after departing. Montoya Caicedo said a lot of water got in the boat, causing it to overturn.
Montoya Caicedo spent two days holding onto the 25-foot boat before he was rescued last Tuesday. He said much of the time he was in the water holding onto the motor, but the night before his rescue he had climbed up onto the overturned hull, where his image was captured by someone in a merchant vessel the day he was found.
He said he searched for his sister after the capsizing, to no avail.
“The truth is that losing her hurts me so, so, so, so much,” he said. “I kept looking for her and looking for her and it was impossible to find her.”
Montoya Caicedo said he decided to try his luck at sea by looking on the Internet and finding groups that said it was easier to migrate that way than by land. A majority of migrants typically travel through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. border.
