Survivors spent about 12 hours in the water without life jackets before being rescued by another boat
Credit: United States Coast Guard
NEED TO KNOW
- A makeshift vessel carrying 60 people capsized near Mona Island, an island west of Puerto Rico, on Sunday, Sept. 27
- The boat capsized after a machete fight left several occupants severely injured, forcing those on board to jump into the water and swim
- Survivors spent about 12 hours in the water without life jackets before another boat found them and alerted authorities
Two people were found dead after a makeshift boat capsized near an island west of Puerto Rico on Sunday, Sept. 27.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced in a Monday, Sept. 28 news release that a boat with around 60 occupants capsized near Mona Island, about 10 miles west of Puerto Rico.
The vessel capsized around 11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, after a “fight broke out and people were severely injured by a machete.” Its occupants, none of whom were wearing life jackets, were then forced to jump into the water and tried to swim to Mona Island, per the release.
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Over the next 12 hours, the survivors stayed in the water until a boat came across the group around noon on Monday, Sept. 28. The people on the boat alerted authorities, and rescued four people from the water.
Two deceased victims were located by the U.S. Coast Guard and its partners in Operation Vigilant Sentry and Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and 40 more were rescued.
Several people who were aboard the vessel remain missing.
Credit: United States Coast Guard
Authorities are searching the Florida Straits, Windward Passage, Mona Passage and Caribbean Sea.
It remains unclear where the makeshift boat originated from.
The incident comes amid years of reports of capsized boats, as migrants from countries including Haiti seek to escape violence in their home countries, including a 2022 incident in which 11 people died and 38 were rescued.
Additionally, a makeshift boat carrying 60 Haitian migrants was stopped by authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands on Sept. 22, according to The Miami Herald. Another 240 Haitian migrants were detained near the archipelago in June. In 2026, around 1,435 Haitians have been stopped by authorities in the Turks and Caicos, according to the outlet.
The reports follow the displacement of 1.5 million people across Haiti due to gang violence, according to a United Nations International Organization for Migration report released on Sept. 25.
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