Investigators suspended their search Monday for a man who went missing after a boat capsized and sank off Staten Island, killing at least three others, during a sunny but chilly afternoon the day before.
Five people were pulled from the water when the U.S. Coast Guard, FDNY and NYPD responded to a distress call about 5 miles southeast of Breezy Point, a neighborhood at the tip of Queens' Rockaway Peninsula, in the Ambrose Channel around 12 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.
Four of them were unconscious. Three people died and two others were taken to a hospital in critical condition. One of them remained in critical condition Monday, a hospital official said, while the other had improved.
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Crews had been looking for a sixth person who was still unaccounted for, officials said. On Monday, the Coast Guard identified that person as 52-year-old Vernon Glasford, who last seen wearing a gray hoody, blue jeans and black boots.
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SIGN UP The Coast Guard suspended its search for Glasford around 6 p.m. Monday.
"We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Vernon Glasford,” said Capt. Jonathan Andrechik, the Coast Guard Sector New York commander. "The decision to suspend a search is always difficult. Though our active search has ended, our support and sympathy remain with all those impacted by this tragic incident."
The family of Glasford said they were waiting for more information from authorities before making any comments.
Despite improving temperatures in the weather, the water was still 38 degrees on Monday.
"The Coast Guard had three aircrews, 2 small boat crews and two ships search overnight and into Monday morning," the agency said in a release.
According to the Coast Guard, the six people aboard the boat had left from Howard Beach earlier Sunday morning on a fishing trip. The boat capsized around noon, with the Coast Guard being notified about a 30-foot boat taking on water near Breezy Point.
The identities of the rest of the victims have not been released, though the family of one of the victims spoke to NBC New York and wondered what could have gone wrong on the water.
"He say he wanna go try the new boat. April is the time go fishing, he goes with five more friends," said Francisca Adames, the wife of Cecilio Javier Adames, who family members said died while doing one of the things he loved most.
Francisca Adames said she spoke with her husband on the phone as he was out on the water.
"He told me there’s a lot of wind," she said, before asking him why he wouldn't come back then.
Adames' daughter Alisha said her father's friend told them he "literally watched one of them jump and drown...the one that drowned, they can’t find his body." Alisha said her father had been rescued from another boating accidents on the North Shore of Long Island in 2009.
"His boat was sinking as well with my two brothers," she said.
A cause of the accident is under investigation.
