3 Children Are Dead After Yacht Capsizes Off Long Island

WNYC.org- Three children were killed when a yacht capsized off Long Island on the Fourth of July, sending 24 others into the Long Island Sound, where many were rescued by fellow boaters, police said Thursday.

Two girls and a boy — ages 12, 11 and 8 — were in the cabin when the boat flipped.

The man operating the 34-foot Silverton motor yacht told News12 Long Island that the boat was hit by a wave, but authorities said they are investigating whether overcrowding may have caused the accident.

Similar Silverton yachts have a maximum capacity of 15. This vessel was carrying 27 passengers.


The boat was returning to Oyster Bay following a fireworks celebration.



Rescue units from the Coast Guard, Nassau County, New York City, Suffolk County, along with civilian boaters helped search for passengers.



The boat initially sank 20 feet underwater but has since drifted, and is now 60 feet below the surface.



Recovering the yacht will also help Nassau Police determine if the boat had enough life jackets on board.



"Everybody aboard the boat is required to have a life jacket," said Nassau Police spokesman James Imperiale. "If a child is under 12 and he is on deck he is required to have a life vest on. If he's in the cabin he's not required to have one on. Whether or not they were wearing life vests is still being looked at."



The first body was found shortly after the 911 call came in around 10 p.m. Wednesday, and the two others were found later inside the yacht, said Nassau County Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lack.



He said the operation took a long time because "at night in an area like this, it is very dangerous."

At Least 10 Dead After Apparent Human-Smuggling Boat Capsizes

(CNN) -- At least 10 people were killed, and an unknown number remained missing Wednesday, after a boat authorities believe was used for human smuggling capsized off the coast of Florida.

Almost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas, according to the U.S. Coast Guard -- which said a dangerous number of people was packed onto a small pleasure cruiser.

The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from the boat, and searchers didn't know how many more people had been on the boat.

"You don't put 26 people on a small boat. It was way overloaded, completely unsafe," said Capt. Jim Fitton, the Coast Guard's sector commander in Miami, Florida. "With smugglers, you have the potential for this because smugglers aren't interested in people's welfare. They're interested in making money."

The boat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida, some time around 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. The agency was notified more than nine hours later by someone who saw the boat.

There were women and children on the boat, Fitton said. A pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, while most of the victims remained onboard a Coast Guard cutter that was being used in the continuing rescue efforts, he said.

Only eight of the people rescued by Wednesday afternoon were wearing life jackets.

The Rev. Luke Harrigan, a Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, pastor to members of the Haitian community who is working with the Coast Guard, said he is contacting family members of the victims who were killed.

"Most of them now didn't even know they were coming to the United States," he said. "Sometimes the person organizing the trip doesn't even tell them where they are going."

He said it's not uncommon for smugglers to charge people from the impoverished island nation as much as $4,000 for passage into the United States.

Coast Guard rescuers were continuing to search the area of the crash Wednesday evening.