Three fishermen disappeared at sea, after the fishing vessel they were traveling in sank this Sunday off Caminha. The searches, which have since been extended to Spain, continue by sea and air but, so far, without success.
The vessel with five people on board sank at 12:20 this Sunday in a rocky area on the island of Ínsua, in Moledo, municipality of Caminha (district of Viana do Castelo). Two of the five people were removed and transported to Viana do Castelo Hospital, but three fishermen remain missing.
Commander Fernando Vieira Pereira, at the end of Monday morning, took stock of the situation, noting that a Spanish air force was going to take action, despite the worsening weather conditions.
The search operation, he explained to journalists, is complex as it puts “operational means at risk”.
Even so, and because “unfortunately we did not have much news or signs of the three missing people”, the search continues and “we continue to collect wreckage debris”, especially in the area of the island of Ínsua.
“We continue to focus on searching for the three missing victims, and we will have a window of opportunity at low tide, which will occur around 6pm. We will not have sunlight but we will begin trying to reach the island and re-evaluate a possible dive at the site of the wreck”, the commander told journalists.
The three missing people, all of Indonesian nationality, are aged “between 28 and 31 years old”, he indicated, confirming that the searches have been extended to neighboring Spain: “The searches are [a decorrer] to the shelter port of La Guardia”.
Boat master and a fisherman were saved
It said, in a statement issued this Sunday, that the alert was received at 12:20 p.m., and searches were immediately initiated, by sea, by the crew of the Viana do Castelo Lifeguard Station and members of the Caminha Maritime Police Local Command, and, by air, by an aircraft from the Portuguese Air Force (FAP) and another from Spain.
During the search operations, coordinated by the Port Captain and local Commander of the Maritime Police of Caminha, it was possible to locate two of the victims, the master of the vessel and a fisherman of Indonesian nationality, and they were subsequently assisted and transported in a conscious state to a hospital unit by members of the Caminha Volunteer Fire Department.
