The Coast Guard announced on Friday that it has suspended its search for a boat that did not arrive in Florida days earlier as expected. The Coast Guard said there were about 20 people on board.
The Coast Guard said it received a report on Tuesday that a 29-foot Mako Cuddy Cabin ship, which had left Bimini, Bahamas on Monday, had not arrived in Lake Worth, Florida as expected. The agency said it had searched about 17,000 square miles for 84 hours to no avail.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the missing people,” said Captain Stephen V. Burdian, Chief of Response for the Seventh District. “I encourage anyone with information about the people on board to contact us as soon as possible.”
WPEC, affiliated with CBS, reported that the coast guard encountered several difficulties during the search, including rough water and not knowing the identity of anyone on board or where exactly the boat would arrive.
“The hardest part is that the longer it takes to find someone, the longer they can drift off,” Jose Hernandez, US Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Public Affairs, told WPEC on Wednesday.
Days before the search was called off, Hernandez said the Coast Guard will not suspend a search until “once we have exhausted all our resources and information.”
“We want to find them, and finding them is our top priority, but we can only be there for so long,” he said at the time.