A tragic incident took place over the weekend in Miami as a man, believed to be in his 30s, fell into the Miami River from a charter boat and prompted a wide-scale search by rescue divers. The passenger reportedly went overboard on Saturday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. near NW North River Drive and NW 4th Street, as the boat waited for the 5th Street bridge, NBC6 reported.
Miami Fire Rescue teams leaped into action with divers combing the waters along a stretch between the Flagler SW 1st Street bridge and the NW 5th Street bridge well into the evening. The Miami River was closed to marine traffic during the search, reopening around 6:30 p.m. Miami Police and Fire Rescue, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) crews, were on the scene, with the FWC heading the investigation into the incident.
According to witness accounts given to Miami police, the victim had toppled from a white cabin cruiser boat in the bustling Brickell-Downtown Miami stretch, an area shadowed by towering condos and a maze of waterways. Specialized divers from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Miami and Miami-Dade fire rescue departments remained immersed in the search operation for hours. The details of this ongoing search were shared by Local 10.
Residents in the vicinity spotted Coast Guard units active in Biscayne Bay near the mouth of the Miami River though clarifying their non-involvement in this particular probe. As the search transitioned from rescue to recovery, the reality on the ground hinted at a somber outcome for the man who had fallen overboard. There has been no update on the victim's identity or how he came to fall off the boat as of yet.
