Search Crews News

The search for three missing mariners was called off on Monday after two towing vessels collided on the Mississippi River at mile marker 123, near Luling, La., Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Search crews scoured more than 835 nautical miles for approximately 67 hours but were unable to find the three missing mariners, the Coast Guard said.The towing vessel Cooperative Spirit was reportedly transiting upbound on the river when it entered a barge fleeting area and allied with barges before colliding with another towing vessel RC Creppel, causing the RC Creppel to sink and barges to breakaway. Four crew members were missing intially, but one was rescued by nearby vessel.The RC Creppel was pushing two barges carrying sulfuric acid.

The Coast Guard continues to search Tuesday for two missing people 46 miles east of Jupiter Inlet.The two people missing are a Bahamian national, a suspected migrant smuggler, and a 9-year-old Haitian national.

The captain and first officer of an ocean going tug boat have been found guilty of drug trafficking following the biggest ever U.K. seizure of class A drugs, the country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced. The cocaine, worth an estimated potential street value of £512 million once adulterated, was found hidden aboard the Tanzanian flagged MV Hamal in April 2015. The vessel had been intercepted by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter HMC Valiant in the North Sea approximately 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it will initiate a second search expedition to the wreckage of sunken El Faro in an effort to gather further evidence in its investigation of the loss of the containership, which sank in the Atlantic during Hurricane Joaquin on October 1, 2015. A key objective of the mission, which is expected to begin in April and last about two weeks, is to locate the voyage data recorder (VDR) and to provide investigators with a more extensive and detailed survey of the shipwreck, NTSB said, adding the exact launch date will be announced later.

The U.S. Coast Guard will call off its search for potential survivors from the missing cargo ship El Faro, several media sources reported Wednesday. The search will end Wednesday night, according to CNN, who cited family members with relatives aboard the vessel that went missing last Thursday in the powerful Hurricane Joaquin. There were 33 aboard, including 28 U.S. citizens and five Polish nationals, when El Faro suffered engine failure and was stranded in high winds and seas up to 50 feet in the path of the storm, says the ship’s owner TOTE.

The Coast Guard has suspended the search for a crabber reported overdue near Anacortes, Wednesday. Dean Harvey, 48, of Bremerton, remains missing. Search crews spent 24 hours completing a total of 24 searches that covered a 909 square mile area with no signs of Harvey. “Suspending the search for a missing person is one of the most difficult decisions we must make,” said Cmdr. Brian Meier, chief of response for Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound. “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Mr. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles located an overturned and aground vessel reportedly matching the description of Harvey’s near the southeast corner of Lopez Island around 9 a.m. The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Adelie towed the vessel to shore.

The Coast Guard suspended their search Sunday at approximately 11 a.m. for two possible survivors of a plane in the water 14 miles north of Port Antonio, Jamaica, Friday. Watchstanders at Coast Guard 7th District command center in Miami received a call from U.S. Northern Command at 11 a.m. reporting that a Socata TBM 700 light business and utility single engine turboprop aircraft departed Rochester, New York at 8:26 a.m. with two people aboard who were reportedly unresponsive to radio calls. The plane was scheduled to arrive in Naples, Florida at noon, Friday. A Coast Guard C-130 aircrew was launched from Clearwater, Florida to help monitor the unresponsive aircraft. Two F-15 fighter jets under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command were launched to investigate.

The search for a missing man in Lake Michigan ended Tuesday afternoon as search crews from the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police located the body of the man on the shore of Lake Michigan in northern Muskegon County, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said in a press announcement this afternoon. The search commenced Monday night after a watchstander at Coast Guard Station Ludington, Michigan, received a phone call from the man’s friend reporting that the man had not reached his destination. The missing man left Whitehall Marina in Whitehall, Michigan, at 1 p.m. and told his friend that he was going to sail 39 miles north in Lake Michigan to Snug Harbor in Pentwater Lake. When the man had not reached Snug Harbor by 7 p.m., his friend called Coast Guard Station Ludington.