MIAMI — Authorities were investigating what led to a crash between two boats Sunday afternoon that led to over a dozen people being hurt near PortMiami.
A crash sent several people to the hospital after two boats collided Sunday afternoon.
CBS News Miami
Around 3:15 p.m., over 30 Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel, including two fireboats and an air rescue unit — alongside the City of Miami Fire, the Florida Wildlife Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard — responded to reports of a boat collision in Fisherman’s Channel near Dodge Island.
According to the Coast Guard, the two watercraft involved were a tour boat and a recreation vessel.
According to MDFR, the response was upgraded due to the number of people involved and the need for additional manpower.
MDFR told CBS News Miami that a total of 13 people were transported by responding agencies to a local hospital, while other patients on the scene were evaluated and released.
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The search for three Americans who went missing earlier this month while sailing off the coast of Mexico has been suspended, authorities said Wednesday.
The U.S. Coast Guard said that it was informed by the Mexican Navy that it had suspended its search for Kerry O’Brien, Frank O’Brien and William Gross. The Coast Guard had been assisting in the search effort.
The three were last heard from on April 4 near Mazatlán, Mexico, according to the Coast Guard. They had been sailing aboard the “Ocean Bound” a 44-foot Lafitte sailboat.
An undated photo of Frank and Kerry O’Brien, two of the three U.S. sailors who went missing while sailing off the Pacific coast of Mexico in April 2023. They had been sailing aboard the “Ocean Bound,” a 44-foot Lafitte sailboat, pictured on the right.
U.S. Coast Guard
The sailors had left Mazatlán en route to San Diego, the Coast Guard said, and had been scheduled to stop in Cabo San Lucas on April 6, but they never arrived. Their last known communication came April 4, when they made calls requesting a stop in Cabo San Lucas for food and fuel.
The Coast Guard said Wednesday that its joint search effort with the Mexican Navy consisted of a cumulative 281 search hours, and covered just over 200,000 square nautical miles.
The search focused on Mexico’s northern Pacific coast, and resulted in no sign of either the missing sailors or their sailboat, the Coast Guard said.
Kerry and Frank O’Brien are a married couple. Kerry’s mother, Ellen Argall, told CBS News earlier this week that her daughter and son-in-law have sailed together for nearly 20 years and are both licensed boat captains. They asked Gross, who had 50 years of experience, to journey with them.
“It’s agony, pure agony,” Argall said. “I’ve been trying to hold myself together.”
There were reports of poor weather conditions the day they departed Mazatlán, the Coast Guard had said, and Ocean Bound’s navigational equipment was older.
“It’s a long trip for even in good conditions,” a Coast Guard spokesperson told CBS News.
— Elise Preston contributed to this report.
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Two men and a pet dog were rescued from a sailboat without power or fuel more than 200 miles off Delaware, 10 days after friends and relatives had last heard from them, the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday.
Kevin Hyde, 65, and Joe Ditomasso, 76, were sailing from Cape May, New Jersey, to Marathon, Florida. But they disappeared after their Atrevida II sailboat left North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Dec. 3.
The Coast Guard was notified Sunday that the two sailors were overdue and launched a search that would stretch from Florida to New Jersey, the agency said. Coast Guard cutters and aircraft participated in the search along with ships from the U.S. Navy and commercial and recreational vessels.
Kevin Hyde (left) and Joe Ditomasso, along with their pet dog, after being rescued from their sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 miles off the coast of Delaware on Dec. 14, 2022. The two were reported missing on Dec. 3.
U.S. Coast Guard
On Tuesday, Hyde and Ditomasso waved their arms to draw the attention of the crew of the Silver Muna tanker ship off Delaware’s coast, the Coast Guard said.
The sailboat’s lack of fuel or power rendered its radios and navigation equipment inoperable, according to the Coast Guard.
In a news conference Wednesday in New York, Hyde praised the “diligence” of the crew of the Silver Muna.
“And they found us, and they realized that we were on board and we were waving and stuff like that,” Hyde said. “Because by that time my masts were down, all systems were mute. We were just kind of hanging out in the boat…He backed up, he saw us, and he came around and he picked us up. It was amazing. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack in this situation.”
Ditomasso added that the two went without drinking water for the final two days prior to being rescued, and were forced to rely on extracting water from beans they had aboard.
“And I bought these beans,” Ditomasso told reporters. “And the best part about the beans, they have water in them. They were soaked in water. And we were taking sips at a time.”
The men and the dog were brought aboard the tanker shortly after 4 p.m. An evaluation by the ship’s medical staff revealed no immediate concerns, the Coast Guard said.
After arriving in New York Harbor, the Coast Guard evaluated the two men further before reuniting them with their family and friends.
“This is an excellent example of the maritime community’s combined efforts to ensure safety of life at sea,” Daniel Schrader, a Coast Guard spokesman said in a statement.
Cmdr. Schrader also stressed the importance of sailors traveling with what’s commonly known as an “EPIRB” or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. It allows people on a boat to immediately make contact with first responders in an emergency.
