World

Canada calls off search for trawler crew

By AAP Newswire

Feb 17, 2022

Spain-Fishing Boat Sinks — The search for the missing sailors went on for about 36 hours and was complicated by bad weather. -AP

Canadian rescue officials have suspended the search for 11 missing crew members from a Spanish trawler that sank in rough seas off the coast of Newfoundland, killing at least 10 people.

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Three surviving sailors from the trawler, suffering from severe hypothermia, were plucked from a life raft early on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear what sank the trawler Villa de Pitanxo.

Bad weather complicated the search efforts, which went on for about 36 hours and involved a plane, two helicopters, rescue ships and one Spanish and two Portuguese trawlers.

"Our thoughts and sincere condolences go out to the families, friends, and community of these individuals. The case will now be turned over to law enforcement as a missing persons at sea case," the Halifax Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre tweeted on Wednesday.

The Villa de Pitanxo, with a crew of 24 comprising 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three Ghanaians, launched a distress beacon, Spain's fisheries ministry said.

The vessel sank about 450 kilometres east-southeast of Newfoundland, the fisheries ministry said.

The sinking was the deadliest involving a Spanish boat in years and was a particular blow to the Villa de Pitanxo's home region of Galicia in northwestern Spain, whose sailors have travelled the world's seas for fish for centuries.