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Search for crew from yacht wrecked off Tonga 3
Search for crew from yacht wrecked off Tonga
3
A second full day of
searching has failed to find two men missing since their
yacht was wrecked off the island of Late, west of the island
of Vava’u, Tonga, on Thursday night.
The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) is coordinating the search for an Australian and an Englishman (also an Australian citizen), both in their sixties, who reported via a satellite phone call to a relative in Victoria, Australia, that they had run aground and their 50ft Bavaria yacht, Navillus, was breaking up.
An emergency locator beacon was activated at the same time, around 10.30pm.
An on-water search yesterday, involving two local fishing vessels, and an aerial search by an RNZAF P3 Orion, located the wreckage of the yacht, but did not find the two men.
Today, a local fishing vessel searched waters near Late Island, and a fixed wing aircraft conducted an aerial search, with no success.
RCCNZ Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Tracy Brickles said searching had now concluded for the day.
“The fishing vessel has today comprehensively covered the likely areas identified through our drift modelling,” Ms Brickles said.
“Conditions were good for searching and our search crews are confident they would have seen the men if they had been in the water.
“On-water and aerial searching is now complete.”
Ms Brickles said crew from one of the fishing vessels had gone ashore yesterday to check the nearest landing points to the area the wreck was found. However, RCCNZ was in the process of organising a team of locals to do a more comprehensive search of the island.
“We hope to have a team of locals onshore searching tomorrow, or Monday at the latest, depending on availability of people and transport.”
The yacht is understood to have been en route from the Caribbean to Bundaberg.
The Police in Victoria are coordinating contact with the next of kin.
RCCNZ will not release the names of those involved.
A further update will be provided tomorrow (Sunday) around 8am.
ENDS
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