Search for man continues in Mashta Flats area after boaters crash off Key Biscayne
Source: WPLG
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – The search for a 33-year-old man continued on Tuesday in Biscayne Bay. He vanished after two Open Fisherman, a 19-foot boat and a 21-foot boat, collided on Monday evening off Key Biscayne.
According to Officer Ronald Washington, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the focus of the search moved to the Mashta Flats, a sandbar in the shallow waters of Biscayne Bay.
The man who vanished was in the Open Fisherman that was carrying seven people when it capsized after the collision near the Bear Cut Bridge, which connects Virginia Key with Key Biscayne.
After 7:30 p.m., a U.S. Coast Guard crew rescued six of the seven boaters and transferred them to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Fireboat 25.
Four of the six rescued were injured, so Miami Fire Rescue personnel waited at the Crandon Marina to rush them to Jackson Memorial Hospital. There were two with leg injuries, a man with an abdominal injury, and a man suffering from back pain, according to Lt. Pete Sanchez, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue.
About 11 p.m., the search for the 7th boater shifted to a recovery mission, which means they were no longer searching for a survivor, but the man’s body. Rescue personnel from the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, the FWC, and the Coast Guard have been involved in the search.
The Coast Guard Sector Miami joined the search with a 33-foot special purpose craft-law enforcement crew, a 45-foot response boat-medium crew, the MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew, and the Manatee and Cochito cutters.
The other boat involved in the crash did not capsize and the man who was steering it was not injured.
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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.