Coast Guard calls off search for 4 missing mariners off Bermuda

The following is the text of a press release issued by the U.S. Coast Guard:

(PORTSMOUTH, Va.) — The U.S. Coast Guard has ended the search for the four remaining crew members of a Spanish fishing vessel that capsized more than 1,000 miles east of Bermuda Thursday.

The Coast Guard’s Rescue Coordination Center Norfolk, located here, suspended active search operations around 4 p.m. (EST) Saturday.

Seven of the 11 crew members from the Spanish-flagged Jose AlmuiÃ±a were rescued Thursday by two commercial vessels. The motor vessel Navig8 Stealth II recovered six crew members from a raft Thursday morning. The motor vessel SKS Mosel located and recovered one crew member clinging to debris in the water later in the day.

During the three-day search that covered almost 4,400 nautical square miles, Coast Guard C-130s from air stations Elizabeth City, N.C., and Clearwater, Fla., a C-130 from the Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing from Gabreski Field in West Hampton Beach, N.Y., a C-130 and P-3 aircraft from the 405th squadron 14th wing of the Canadian Forces in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and two other commercial vessels, the Red Lilly and Schippersgracht, located additional debris from the Jose AlmuiÃ±a, but never found the remaining four crew.

The seven rescued crew members will remain aboard the commercial vessels until their next ports of call.

MEDIA NOTES (if you can’t directly link to these sites, please cut and paste the address into your browser):

Video can be downloaded and viewed at: http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=416243

And is also available at the Coast Guard’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65_M8jby52o

Please visit the following sites for additional imagery and information:

AMVER information and photographs. http://www.flickr.com/photos/amver/

All three of the commercial vessels involved in this search and rescue case are members of the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System, or Amver. AMVER is sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard and is a unique, computer-based, and voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea. With Amver, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and divert the best-suited ship or ships to respond. For more information visit: http://www.amver.com/press/11-07-08_press_release.pdf

Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing information:

http://readme.readmedia.com/news/show/New-York-Air-National-Guard-Aircraft-Returns-from-Search-for-Missing-Ship-s-Crew/304827

http://www.106rqw.ang.af.mil

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