At Least 3 Dead in Capsizing Off Boynton Beach FL

[Boz]

Boat carrying 28 people capsizes off Boynton Beach

By Patty Pensa, Maria Herrera and Brian Haas

South Florida Sun Sentinel

2:54 PM EDT, May 13, 2009

BOYNTON BEACH

U.S. Coast Guard boats and aircraft are conducting a rescue operation off Boynton Inlet, where as many as 28 people were reportedly in the ocean after their boat capsized.

The passengers may have been in the water since 2 a.m., the Coast Guard said.

Three people are confirmed dead. The Coast Guard is pulling people out of the water and will bring them to shore.

Almost half the people on board the capsized boat have been located in the waters near Boynton Beach. Eight were responsive and considered rescued, said Lt. Matthew J. Moorlag, Coast Guard spokesman.

Five were unresponsive though Moorlag said Coast Guard officials do not determine if they have died.

At least two Good Samaritans were helping search. One of them found three of the people on board. The Coast Guard is searching the area with two helicopters, an airjet, an 87-foot patrol boat and several small boats.

Moorlag did not know the ages of those on board but said they were Haitian and Bahamian. The survivors said there were 28 people on the vessel.

One person was flown to the hospital, possible Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach.

Shortly after 2:30 p.m. rescue workers at the Boynton Beach inlet began moving their rescue support operation to Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach on the advice of the Coast Guard. Fire-rescue workers from four departments -- Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, Palm Beach and Palm Beach County -- will set up a triage treatment area to help survivors.

The boat capsized 15 miles out. Don DeLucia, spokesman for county fire-rescue, said he expected the victims would be brought in by about 3 p.m.

The call came into the Coast Guard at about 1:30 p.m. It has launched a full-scale search from the air and sea, he said.

Rescue crews from the Coast Guard's Lake Worth station and from Miami were on their way, Petty Officer Barry Bena said.

It was unclear where the boat came from or where it was headed when it overturned in the ocean, Bena said.

About 28 Coast Guard personnel were on their way to scene, Bena said. Two small boats were dispatched from the Coast Guard Station at Lake Worth Inlet, a helicopter and jet were sent from Coast Guard Air Station Miami and the cutter Cormorant also was en route from Miami.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., the trauma team at Delray Medical Center was on standby. Officials at the hosptial, which has one of the county's two trauma centers, expected to receive the most severely injured.

"We're just waiting to see who needs our help," hospital spokeswoman Shelly Weiss said.

[Trollnheel]

hmm....I wonder how many people that boat is rated for....

[kingair]

hmm....I wonder how many people that boat is rated for....

Moorlag did not know the ages of those on board but said they were Haitian and Bahamian. The survivors said there were 28 people on the vessel.

[Boz]

Latest = 10 dead, 17 injured.

[wiley]

Haitian boat lift it appears.

Human smuggling by boat almost always leads to bad news - like this. Happens often off Jupiter Inlet as many depart from the Western Bahamas.

[Boz]

You hit it right on the head, Wiley ~~

Man charged in fatal boat accident involving migrants off South Florida coast

By Brian Haas and Patty Pensa

South Florida Sun Sentinel

2:05 PM EDT, May 18, 2009

BOYNTON BEACH

Federal authorities have charged a U.S. resident in connection with last week's smuggling attempt in which nine migrants were found dead after their boat overturned off the South Florida coast.

The suspect, identified by federal prosecutors as Jimmy Metellus, 39, was to make an initial appearance in magistrate court in West Palm Beach this morning, but the hearing was postponed until Wednesday to bring in a Creole interpreter, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Documents charging Metellus say he is a Haitian citizen, but a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

One of the survivors told federal investigators that his brother paid Metellus $4,000 for his trip from the Bahamas to the U.S.

Metellus first denied smuggling the people, but later admitted he piloted the boat, according to court records.

The 11 migrants who survived the capsizing of an overloaded boat were brought ashore and into custody Friday afternoon after two days on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.

The survivors were transferred to U.S. Border Patrol and will be processed for "expedited removal," said Assistant Chief Victor Colon of the Miami Sector Border Patrol.

The 11 migrants were part of an ill-fated voyage of possibly more than 30 people, mostly Haitians, who left Bimini together on Tuesday. Their boat capsized early Wednesday morning but the first survivors were not found until at least 11 hours later off Boynton Beach. The boat likely was part of a human smuggling operation, officials have said.

In addition to those held on the 87-foot Coast Guard cutter, another five who needed medical attention were sent to local hospitals. Nine others, including a baby girl, died.

Ermanie Lubin of North Miami thanked God on Friday afternoon after learning that her nephew Guepson Lubin, 28, had survived the journey.

"This is a blessing, This is a blessing,'' said Lubin, filled with emotion.

Lubin has a wife, who is a U.S. citizen, and a 4-year old son in Orlando. He lived for more than 10 years in Orlando and Miami, but was deported in 2007 after his political asylum was denied.

Jim Lubin, a cousin, said after what Guepson has been through to get here he shouldn't be sent back. "It's not fair. This is supposed to be the country of the free."

Around-the-clock search-and-rescue efforts stretched from midday Wednesday to Thursday night, though efforts were hampered by a swift-moving Gulf Stream. Coast Guard officials ended their search in Cape Canaveral.

The Florida Immigration Advocacy Center wrote letters Thursday and Friday to the Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement asking the agencies to bring ashore the 11 migrants who survived.

"Conditions on a Coast Guard cutter are clearly not conducive to conducting a criminal investigation," read the advocacy's Friday letter. "Victims of smuggling are traumatized and terrified. They don't know who to trust and may fear retribution from the smugglers."

It was the right decision to bring them on land, said Cheryl Little, advocacy center executive director. She expects the migrants to be processed, then brought to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach.

"The goal now is to find out exactly what happened and to bring the smugglers to justice," she said.

At the same time, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office completed autopsies of the nine and turned over those reports to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Tony Mead, medical examiner spokesman.

The office is awaiting toxicology results, which could take up to 14 weeks, before determining causes of death.

The Medical Examiner's Office declined to release the identities of those who died or a breakdown by age or gender. Only one of the dead had any identification, Mead said, and officials were working to find local relatives.

"We'd like to get them identified as soon as possible," he said.

Callers from Haiti have been asking about survivors, said Jean Lafortune, chairman of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition in Miami.

"We still have a lot of members looking for loved ones," he said.

Gens Flermont doesn't know whether his son, Elson Flermont, survived the journey. His name was not on the initial list of survivors released Friday.

"I've been crying all day,'' he said from activist Bob-Louis Jeune's office in Lake Worth. Flermont, of Lantana, said his son had been in the Bahamas visiting family. A friend called to tell him his son was on the boat.

"People are calling from the Bahamas for information, but we don't know anything yet,'' Jeune said.

Officials are being tight-lipped about details of the migrants who died because of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, likely into human smuggling.

Haitians spend $2,000-$4,000 per person to come to the United States from their homeland, which has been ravaged by severe weather and civil unrest.

"Right now, we're in the early stages of a criminal investigation," said agency spokeswoman Nicole Navas. "To not hinder any future prosecution effort, we wouldn't comment. It's too premature."

Fingerprints from the migrants were cross-checked with the FBI without match, officials said.