'It is dire': 1 body found as search goes on for 38 others on capsized boat off Florida coast
ABC News
A Coast Guard official said human smuggling is suspected in capsized-boat tragedy off Florida coast.
One body has been recovered as a search continued Wednesday morning for 38 other passengers believed to have been on a human-smuggling boat that capsized in the northern Straits of Florida, officials said.
During a news conference Wednesday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard official said search and rescue crews are in a race against time to find any survivors.
"It is dire. The longer they remain in the water without food, without water, exposed to the marine environment, the sun, the sea conditions, every moment that passes it becomes much more dire and unlikely that anyone could survive in those conditions," said Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, commander of the Sector Miami Coast Guard.
The 25-foot capsized boat was discovered around 8 a.m. on Tuesday roughly 40 miles east of Florida's Fort Pierce Inlet when a commercial tug-in barge operator radioed in that one survivor was found clinging to the hull of the overturned vessel.
