The US Coast Guard announced on Thursday night the suspension of the search. Only five bodies have been found.
The photograph of a young man sitting on the hull of an overturned boat in the middle of the sea off the coast of Florida has gone around the world.
This is Juan Esteban Montoya, a 22-year-old Colombian from the municipality of Guacarí, in the Cauca Valley, a diplomatic representative of the South American country in the United States confirmed to BBC Mundo on Thursday.
The young man, rescued by a tugboat on Tuesday after spending hours adrift, revealed that he had left the Bahamas at dawn on Sunday with 39 other people.
Five bodies were found in the area; the remaining 34 were not found.
The US Coast Guard announced on Thursday night the suspension of the search.
“Unfortunately, we have reached the most difficult moment in any search and rescue case and that’s the point where we decide when to stop actively searching,” Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, commander of Coast Guard Sector Miami, said in a statement.
“After careful consideration of all available information, including weather conditions, the number of people who fell into the water without life jackets, the time elapsed since the date of the accident, and a relentless search of an area larger than Massachusetts, it is with great regret that I decided to stop the search”, he added.
“I was very weak and distressed”
The photograph of the survivor just before being rescued dates from Tuesday morning, when the captain of the tugboat ‘Signet Intruder’, which covered a route between Jacksonville (Florida) and Puerto Rico, saw the young man in trouble and came to his aid.
“At 8.05 we brought him on board and he was treated immediately, as he was dehydrated, and we gave him water and some soft food. He was very weak and very distressed, ”the operations manager of the Signet shipping company in Florida explained to BBC Mundo.
As established by protocol, the survivor was handed over to the US Coast Guard in the coastal town of Fort Pierce.
But first, the crew had a brief conversation with Montoya, who told them some details about the expedition of migrants of which he was a part.
“He told us that there were 40 people in his boat in total, including himself, and that, after leaving Bimini at midnight from Saturday to Sunday, they completed four hours of travel until bad weather caused the ship to capsize,” he said.
About twenty of them, according to the account transmitted by the survivor to the crew, they would have held on to the remains of the hull for hours, but when they came to rescue them, at 8 am on Tuesday, only Juan Esteban Montoya was left.
The young Colombian was traveling with his younger sister, María Camila, who disappeared in the shipwreck, according to the mother of both in an interview she gave to the local network Telemundo 51 in Florida after speaking with her son, who is recovering in the hospital.
criminal investigation
Six ships, including one from the Navy, six aircraft and hundreds of troops participated in the search for survivors, said local Coast Guard spokesman Hansel Pintos.
They covered an area of 27,000 km2, according to the official statement.
The US authorities did not reveal the identity or nationality of the deceased or the disappeared, allegedly migrants who were trying to reach the coast of the North American country from the Bahamas.
The Department of Homeland Security opened a criminal investigation, suspecting that it was a case of human trafficking.
Special Agent Anthony Salisbury said Thursday that the Department, in cooperation with other authorities, will try to “identify, arrest and prosecute” the culprits. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
