Five Law Enforcement Officers Survives Capsized Vessel at Sea!

Gregory Soberanis

Tonight, the Belize Coast Guard is breathing a sigh of relief in what could have been a tragedy at sea for two of its sailors and three cops. The Coast Guard reports that on Wednesday night they received a call about a drowning at Turneffe Island Resort and this morning the team deployed to sea but before they arrived their vessel, a small twenty-five foot skiff took in water and capsized around eleven thirty.  The Belize Coast Guard reports that they sent out several of their vessels on a massive search and rescue which included additional support from the Belize Fisheries Department; San Pedro Water Taxi; Maya Island Air; the Belize Defence Force; and Astrum Helicopter. But it was a fishing vessel that located all five persons alive somewhere in the Belize City Harbour. They are Petty Officers Leron Thomas and Anthony Neal of the Belize Coast Guard; and police officers Kasey Requeña; Dean Pollard and Amrita Cawich. This evening Acting Commandant Gregory Soberanis briefed the media on the sequence of events.

Commander Gregory Soberanis, Acting Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“Two coast guardsmen and three members of the police were making their way to the Turneffe Atoll and the sea state, the choppy seas eventually capsized the vessel and all five persons on board were in the water and the vessel eventually submerged. Just prior to the vessel going under, the coast guard commander made a distress call to the operations center stating that they were going under and we eventually lost communication. He gave us a general description and location of where he was and we immediately mobilized our search units and deployed them to the general area of where we last had contact with the team moving to the Turneffe Atoll. We knew that time was of the essence because we had five persons in the water and in search and rescue operations every second is critical and every second counts. We were initially able to mobilize five coast guard assets. We realized that we needed additional assistance.   So, we had seven surface assets and three air assets conducting the search for the five missing security personnel.  The distress call came in at approximately eleven thirty-a.m and every second, every hour that passed we knew that time was against us. Because the weather condition that relates to wind, current and drift we knew that this would have an effect on the individuals especially given that a little cold front is in at the moment and so all these factors we had to consider; hypothermia – at what point in time hypothermia was going to set in and so we had to be quick with our response time. They were eventually found at two-fifteen in the afternoon by a local fishing vessel that was in the area and they saw the coast guard assets conducting the search and they sighted a few life jackets and they moved to where they saw the life jackets and they heard the security personnel making noise to draw their attention. They eventually moved in and were able to recover them from the water; made contact with Coast Guard headquarters and that concluded the search and rescue for the five security personnel. We give God thanks that they were found alive and well.”