The US Coast Guard has suspended its search for five missing people from what it suspects is a failed smuggling venture approximately 29 miles (47 kilometres) off St Lucie Inlet in southeastern Florida pending the development of new information.
Coast guard crews rescued four people and searched by air and sea for approximately seven hours, covering more than 1,240 square miles (3,210 square kilometres).
The four people were rescued by an Air Station Miami aircrew and transported to local emergency medical services at Stuart Airport. After the rescue, a survivor reported the vessel departed Bimini in the Bahamas with nine people on Friday, and it capsized early Saturday morning (local time).
On Sunday, a Good Samaritan reported an overturned 25-foot (7.6-metre) vessel with four people clinging to it to Coast Guard Sector Miami Command Center watchstanders.
"The decision to suspend a search is always difficult and never taken lightly," said Chief Warrant Officer Edgardo Insignares, a search and rescue mission coordinator with Coast Guard Sector Miami. "Smugglers routinely exploit vulnerable aliens for profit while putting their lives at risk aboard overloaded and unseaworthy vessels.
"These dangerous and illegal voyages must not be attempted. Safe, legal and orderly migration saves lives. Don’t take to the sea."
Also participating in the search were the coast guard cutter Margaret Norvell, US Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Martin County Sheriff's Office, and Martin County Fire Rescue.