Coast Guard ends search for remaining survivors of migrant boat off Puerto Rico

David Goodhue, Miami Herald on Oct 2, 2026

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The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for 10 people who remain missing after a migrant boat capsized between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on Sunday, the service said.

The Coast Guard said in a statement Thursday night that crews searched by air and sea for almost 80 hours in an area covering nearly 2,650 miles for the people. Crews rescued 49 people, who said there were 62 passengers on the overloaded boat that flipped over during a fight around 11 p.m. Sunday off Mona Island, located between Puerto Rico to the east and Hispaniola to the west.

Survivors said that not only were people fighting with their hands, several people were seriously injured by a machete. Survivors of the melee jumped overboard. Coast Guard crews recovered three bodies during the multi-agency search.

“Our hearts go out to the families of those missing after this tragic capsizing in the Mona Passage,” Cmdr. Matthew Romano, Coast Guard Sector San Juan’s chief of response and the search, said in a statement.

The Coast Guard released video footage earlier this week showing rescue swimmers saving people from the choppy water and hoisting them into helicopters hovering above. The footage also showed survivors jumping from a rocky island into the water and swimming to Coast Guard rescue swimmers.

It wasn’t just Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations that saved some of the survivors. The crew of a civilian boat, the Tripiti, rescued four people the day after the boat capsized, the Coast Guard said.

“These lives were saved from the brink of tragedy due to the heroic, relentless, and coordinated actions of the courageous crew of a Good Samaritan, alongside our dedicated U.S. air, surface, and land assets, and our partners in the Dominican Republic Air Force and Navy,” Romano said. “Their bravery in the face of peril is a testament to our shared mission to protect human life at sea.”

U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection spokesman Jeffrey Quinones said most of the survivors are from the Dominican Republic, including one child, and two are from Haiti.

The 49 survivors were transferred from the Coast Guard Gutter Joseph Doyle to U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Border Patrol agents in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, the Coast Guard said.

“To anyone considering illegally migrating via boat to the United States — do not do it. Entrusting your life to these unscrupulous smugglers in makeshift, unseaworthy vessels is a possible death sentence,” Romano said. “We remain vigilant, we will continue to secure our maritime borders, and we will target these illegal ventures to prevent more lives from being lost.”