PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Search and rescue operations were underway on Monday in Trinidad and Tobago for at least five people who went missing after a boating accident. The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, assisted by the local nongovernmental organization Hunters Search and Rescue Team, spent most of Monday searching for the unaccounted individuals.
The incident occurred Sunday evening when two boats collided in waters off the northwestern peninsula of Trinidad, the larger of the two main islands of the twin-island Caribbean nation. “Preliminary reports indicate that several persons remain unaccounted for as search efforts continue,” the coast guard stated on Monday.
Eyewitness Jonathan Salandy, a boat captain with Pontoon Tours TT, described the collision, noting that one vessel was thrown into the air, ejecting its occupants into the water. “I saw people just in the water all over,” Salandy recounted in a video statement. He and his crew immediately responded, racing to the scene under the cover of darkness to rescue survivors. They distributed life jackets to crash victims and pulled some onto their tour boat.
Salandy specifically mentioned one individual who sustained a severe head laceration and was bleeding profusely. The coast guard confirmed that some of the rescued individuals were transported to local hospitals for treatment of their injuries, though officials did not immediately disclose the exact number of injured persons.
Throughout Monday, relatives and friends of those missing gathered along the coastline at a nearby beach in Chaguaramas, located on Trinidad’s northwestern tip. They spent hours praying and anxiously awaiting updates from the authorities.
