The Latest: Coast Guard: Search for missing boaters ongoing
Jul 29, 2015, 9:30 AM
Andrew Grubowski, 10, of Palm City, Fla., releases a lantern during a vigil for Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, Tuesday, July 28, 2015, in Stuart, Fla. The two teenagers have been missing since last Friday when they went out on a boat to go fishing from Tequesta, Fla. A search continues for the boys from the Atlantic waters off Daytona Beach, Fla, north through Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
TEQUESTA, Fla. (AP) — The latest on the search for the two Florida teens who went missing while on a fishing trip off Florida’s Atlantic coast:
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11:45 a.m.
A Coast Guard spokesman says the search for two teen boaters who went missing off the coast of Florida is ongoing.
Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss, the spokesman for the Florida Coast Guard district, said Wednesday: “There is no plan to suspend the search today.”
Earlier, a U.S. official said the Coast Guard was suspending the search. But Doss says any reports of the search ending are inaccurate.
Doss says aircraft and boats are searching. Crews have been searching for 14-year-olds Perry Cohn and Austin Stephanos for six days.
At noon Wednesday, three vehicles pulled into the driveway of Cohen’s home, and representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Tequesta Police got out and met with the family.
The teen’s capsized boat was found Sunday, and the Coast Guard says it’s searching the waters from Daytona Beach, Florida, north to South Carolina.
The boys are described as consummate seamen who grew up on the water and spent much of their free time boating and fishing.
— Associated Press writer Alicia Caldwell contributed from Washington.
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7:40 a.m.
The search continued Wednesday for two Florida teens who have been missing in the Atlantic Ocean since leaving Friday afternoon on a fishing trip.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Anthony Soto says the search area for Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, both 14, now stretches from Florida’s east coast to Charleston, South Carolina.
As dawn broke Wednesday, Soto says a C-130 aircraft planned a “first-light” search near Tybee Island, Georgia, where callers reported seeing something floating in the water Tuesday evening. Crews combed the area Tuesday night, but didn’t find anything connected to the search for the missing boys.
Soto says the agency issued an Urgent Marine Information to notify boaters in the area to contact the Coast Guard if they spot anything.
He says the agency will likely reevaluate the search mission, which is entering its sixth day, sometime Wednesday.
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