Search and recovery operations for the bodies aboard the sunken MV Fair Chance are continuing this weekend.
A seaman who is close to crew members of the vessel, and who asked not to be named, said divers were doing their best to retrieve the rest of the bodies.
Two weeks ago, the St Vincent-registered boat overturned on Trinidad’s North Coast en route to St Vincent after which crew members were rescued by another vessel that took them to the Coast Guard headquarters in Chaguaramas.
Last Thursday, Coast Guard recovered one body, Quincy Baptiste from inside the MV Fair Chance.
Divers said four other bodies are trapped inside the vessel.
Darrol Small, one of the crew members who was rescued, told CNC3 on Friday that the water was very rough and it flipped the vessel. He said if T&T officials had moved faster the other crew members could have been saved.
The seaman said, “The salvage people came this morning and cut a hole for the Coast Guard to go in. When the Coast Guard dived three times, they found out a ceiling was blocking them. You could understand that? They didn’t come with anything to cut the ceiling. They made two dives and that was it, they said the ceiling was blocking them.”
He said more work will be done before the weekend ends as they hope to float the vessel by Monday.
“If they had any hopes for more people to be alive, all that hope is gone,” he said.