Coast Guard Recovers Five Bodies After Boat Capsizes Off Florida Coast

Search and rescue operations continued on Thursday, January 27, off the Florida coast for survivors of a boat, believed to be carrying dozens of migrants, that capsized after leaving the Bahamas on Saturday, the Coast Guard reported.

On Thursday, officials said that the remains of four additional people had been recovered, bringing the total number of recovered bodies to five. One person was found alive holding the boat’s hull on Tuesday morning, spurring the belated rescue operation. According to the survivor, he was traveling on the boat with 39 other people when it capsized due to bad weather shortly after leaving the Bimini islands.

Coast Guard Commander Jo-Ann Burdian said at a Thursday press conference that barring additional information to further direct the effort, an active search for survivors would cease at sundown.

“We have saturated the area over and over and over again,” Burdian told reporters. “We’ve had good visibility… we know we’re searching in the right area. We’ve overflown the vessel a number of times and have found additional deceased persons. It does mean we don’t think it’s likely that anyone else has survived.”

This footage, released by the Coast Guard on Wednesday, shows search and rescue efforts off the Florida coast. Credit: US Coast Guard via Storyful