Port of Miami: man dies after his boat plows into ferry – harbor shuts
Port of Miami descends into chaos as 27-year-old man dies after his 30ft boat plowed into ferry at 4am causing harbor to shut down with thousands of cruise ship passengers stranded at sea
- Cristian Gaston Fernandez, of Cutler Bay, died at the scene near Dodge Island
- His friend, Angel Dominguez, 29, of Hialeah, was rescued and taken to hospital
- An estimated 15,000 cruise passengers were stranded at sea for 15 hours
A 27-year-old man has died after his boat ploughed into a ferry near Miami at 4am, while his friend was hospitalized and the city’s harbor was plunged into chaos.
Cristian Gaston Fernandez, of Cutler Bay, was found dead by Miami Fire Rescue divers, while his friend, Angel Dominguez, 29, of Hialeah, was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, authorities have said.
The Miami men were on board a 30-foot boat which crashed into a Fisher Island ferry near Dodge Island at around 3.40am on Sunday.
Ferry workers pulled Dominguez from the ocean, and he told them about his missing friend before he was taken to the hospital.
Gaston Fernandez was found dead in the water around five minutes later, officials said.
A man has died while his friend is severely injured after their 30-foot boat crashed into a ferry in Miami Port in the early hours of Sunday morning
The 30-foot long vessel was submerged after the accident and took agencies several hours to recover from the water at Dodge Island, Miami
Miami Port shut down following the fatal crash, leaving an estimated 15,000 cruise passengers stranded at sea close to the Florida coast, according to Cruise Industry News.
Cruise ships constantly dock at Dodge Island, and after Sunday’s incident three liners – the Norwegian Escape, Carnival Celebration and MSC Seascape – were locked in limbo for around 15 hours.
Investigators say the crash was an accident, and an official described the rescue mission from the scene.
‘When we arrived on the scene we found one patient that the coastguard had recovered from the water,’ he told NBC.
‘He was transported to the Ryder Trauma Center. He began asking for his friend, so at that point we were notified that that was a second occupant in the boat.
‘We found the other victim underwater after about a five-minute search. Unfortunately the victim was deceased at the scene.’
Videos posted online showed hundreds of dejected cruise passengers sitting on the floor of a waiting area ahead of their trip on a Carnival Celebration, which they were not able to board for almost a day.
Other clips showed and endless crowd of people standing crammed together waiting for their MSC voyage to begin, while stacks of luggage lay waiting in the same area.
Stranded MSC cruise passenger Barnabas Johnson said he and his pregnant wife had been on their feet waiting for the ship for several hours, before the port re-opened.
‘We’re stuck,’ Johnson told NBC. ‘There’s nothing we can do. We can’t go home. We can’t leave. We can’t cancel our trip. We can’t get money back.’
A man has died while his friend is severely injured after their 30-foot boat crashed into a ferry in Miami Port in the early hours of Sunday morning
Miami Port in Florida was shut after a fatal boat crash, as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigated and salvaged a sunken vessel involved
The deadly boat crash caused around 15 hours of delays for an estimated 15,000 cruise passengers and many more waiting to board the Fisher Island ferry
Thousands of passengers were stuck on cruise liners, while thousands more were trapped in waiting areas unable to board the idling ships for around 15 hours
‘People are hungry,’ he said. ‘People are thirsty and they’re telling us that it’s gonna be a long wait.’
Videos posted online also showed huge cruise liners suspended in the water at intervals.
One passenger on board joked that they were ‘sitting in the dock of the bay’ with ‘no idea’ when they would be able to leave.
‘We are in the water… we’re just kind of sitting because there was an accident in the shipping channel that leads to the Port of Miami,’ he said on Twitter.
‘So all the cruise ships, including ours, are just literally sitting in the dock of the bay waiting to get in, because we can’t get there.
‘I’ve got no idea when we’re going to not only get to the port, but get to our destination.’
The US Coast Guard said it ‘established a temporary security zone limiting inbound and outbound vessel traffic’ for Miami Port while Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigated.
Later on Sunday they said the ‘sunken vessel’ was still posing ‘significant hazard to navigation’ around the port.
Several hours later, the US Coast Guard said the vessel had been ‘successfully recovered’, adding that the Captain of the Port had authorized a reopening.
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