Search Continues For Five Missing After Chaguaramas Collision
Search efforts continued on Tuesday for Kieyanna Seechan, Amir Ali, Anil Ahyee, Titus Augustine and Lorenzo Oliver, who have been missing since a collision between a pirogue and a pleasure craft in Chaguaramas on Sunday.
The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, Defence Force and Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Coastal Unit are among the agencies involved in the coordinated search.
TTT News joined members of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team, led by Captain Vallence Rambharat, for a tour of the waters off Staubles Bay in Chaguaramas, where the incident occurred.
Team member Ramnauth Ramcharitar said the search has been challenging, with rough sea conditions and strong winds affecting their efforts.
« So yesterday we did some searches looking for stuff, but nothing. We did not see nothing from the boats or anything, and we started today, but today now, there’s a lot of high wind and the water really choppy, as you could see, so we widening the search because when the incident take place there were falling tide. »
During Tuesday’s operation, the team extended its search to First Bocas, approximately three miles from the site of the collision, before continuing towards Second Bocas.
The initial search lasted more than five hours.
« We start off from where the accident took place, and we went through to the first Bocas, went all the way around to the second Bocas, and now we’re coming around back to go back to where the incident took place. »
Despite the extensive efforts, the team reported no sightings during Tuesday’s search.
Mr Ramcharitar said the coming days will be critical, as the team prepares to conduct more detailed searches in the surrounding waters.
« From now until evening, going over to tomorrow, the possibility bodies will start to float, and tomorrow will be a more serious search. It will be a more detailed search, and there we will really start to look for bodies, because on the third day is where it starts to float. »
