Haitian boat capsizes; 113 saved, dozens missing

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — The U.S. Coast Guard used boats, airplanes and a helicopter to search the warm, shallow waters off the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday for some 70 Haitians believed missing after their overloaded sailboat capsized. Rescuers pulled 113 survivors from reefs, and police recovered 11 bodies.

An estimated 200 people were aboard the boat when it capsized, said Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Johnson, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami. The Coast Guard was leading the search for survivors by sea and air.

"We're really hoping we can find as many people as possible," Johnson said.

The Haitians had been at sea for three days when the migrants spotted a police vessel and accidentally steered the boat onto a reef as they tried to hide, survivor Alces Julien told The Associated Press at a hospital were some survivors were being treated for dehydration.

"We saw police boats and we tried to hide until they passed," he said. "We hit a reef and the boat broke up."

But Deputy Police Commissioner Hubert Hughes said police were not pursuing the migrant vessel — which did not have a motor — and were involved only as rescuers.

"They were traveling in waters that are quite dangerous if you don't know the area quite well," he said.

Rescuers found 113 survivors stranded on two reefs roughly two miles (three kilometers) offshore of West Caicos Island, said Lt. Cmdr. Matt Moorlag, a Coast Guard spokesman. Most of them were ferried to land by Turks and Caicos authorities using small boats.

Five survivors were found on West Caicos after apparently swimming ashore, Hughes said. He said authorities have recovered 11 bodies.

Johnson said the shipwreck happened Monday afternoon, but Hughes said it might have sunk Sunday night. Turks and Caicos authorities reported the capsizing Monday to the Coast Guard, which patrols the region for drug traffickers and illegal migrants and often helps in search and rescue efforts.

Survivors told authorities the boat set out from northern Haiti with about 160 passengers, then stopped at an unknown location and picked up 40 others before sinking near the Turks and Caicos, an island chain between Haiti and the Bahamas, Johnson said. She said overloading appeared to be a factor.

"These vessels, they are grossly overloaded," she said. "Two hundred people on a sailboat is astronomical."