The following is the text of a press release issued by the U.S. Coast Guard:
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Coast Guard rescue crews at Sector San Juan ended their search Monday morning in Mona Passage waters for a missing crewman aboard the 498-foot Panamanian cargo vessel Crown Topaz.
The Coast Guard launched a multi-day search for the 27-year-old man after Coast Guard Watchstanders in Sector San Juan received a call at 9 a.m. Saturday from the Crown Topaz reporting the incident.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of the missing mariner,” said Captain Eduardo Pino, Coast Guard Sector San Juan commander.
The crewmen aboard the Crown Topaz reported last seeing the mariner at 11 p.m. Friday and they noticed he was missing when he did not report to his watch at 7 a.m. Saturday.
The Crown Topaz was en route to Portugal from Costa Rica transiting the Mona Passage east of Isla Saona, Dominican Republic and around the northwest coast of Puerto Rico at the time the mariner went missing.
Since the search began Saturday, Coast Guard rescue crews searched approximately 3,830 square nautical miles, an area approximately the size of Puerto Rico, aboard surface and air assets, including MH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Borinquen, Aguadilla, an HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircraft from Air Station Miami, Coast Guard Cutter’s Cushing and Reef Shark and Coast Guard Auxliary aircraft.
Coast Guard Cutter’s Cushing and Reef Shark are 110-foot and 87-foot patrol boats respectively home ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
