Tonight, there is still no word about the 7 Belize City men who went missing at sea sometime on Sunday. The search intensified today, but still there are no significant new leads, other than the discovery of life jackets and an icebox believed to have been in the Ocean Hopper. Lots of objects, but still no signs of life.
Still, the families of the missing 7 continue to hold on to hope. They are based at the civilian search command center in Ladyville – at the office of Avis Car Rental. But they weren’t there all day. This morning the families went on a field trip near Bannister Caye - the spot where the Ocean Hopper was found. They didn’t find anything but spokeswoman Audrey Matura-Shepherd says they have new reasons for hope. That is because new information to them says that the men may not have been jacked by sea pirates. Matura-Shepherd says that a thorough examination of the Ocean Hopper revealed that they may have been involved in an accident.
Audrey Matura-Shepherd,
“It could not have been foul play because it seems as though they may have hit a rock, hit a reef or something like that and as a result of that the engine was ripped off because you can actually see the board where part of the piece that would have been holding it ripped off. And then the other portion is where there is a bolt and that bolt didn’t rip off but obviously
maybe part of the engine broke so that it could be released from the boat. So it would seem as maybe they went on the reef, went on something, hit something and that’s how they had the problem.
The canopy unlike what we were told was missing, pieces of the canvass were missing but the actual canopy structure and little pieces of the canvass is still stuck on it. So it’s not as though someone took off the canopy. When we saw the ignition, the key was still in the ignition so from all indications, if we are right, it was an accident that they encountered.
Now we cannot say for certain that they were wearing their life vests. We know they carried. We cannot say if they got injured or didn’t get injured so we need to also work with those probabilities - that they may have gotten injured and as such we are looking for injured men or that they didn’t get injured and that they have stuck together and are somewhere waiting for us to find them. But I don’t know, we just remain optimistic. We have to remain optimistic.
We know after 72 hours passes our chances of finding people quickly and fully in health diminishes. Everyday we are told everyday that passes, ten percent chance is reduced but no we haven’t established our timeline. That will be part of our meeting tonight.”
On their field trip this morning the families also spoke to an employee on a nearby caye who spotted the ocean hopper with all 7 men on board on Sunday evening. That was close to 5 pm and the boat was beyond the reef.
Matura-Shepherd says the search is still a massive effort and they are still in need of help. She says that the air search has been slightly handicapped since the BDF only has one plane and their funds are limited so they can only rent the helicopter, which is $2,000 an hour, for a few hours at a time. They are still requesting assistance from anyone with small crafts such as jet skis. Donation of fuel will also be greatly appreciated.
