Spain mourns the loss of four fishermen – and trembles for the lives of 17 other men who disappeared without a trace after a fishing ship sank in the ice-cold waters of the northwest Atlantic.
At least seven people have died after a Spanish fishing vessel sank in the Atlantic off the coast of Canada. 14 other seafarers were missing on Tuesday, according to the competent authorities in Canada and Spain.
Only three of the 24 members of the crew of the ship “Villa de Pitanxo” from Galicia in northwestern Spain could initially be rescued alive from a life raft, as Lieutenant Captain Brian Owens from the Canadian armed forces told the German Press Agency.
The intensive search for the missing persons was still in full swing on Tuesday afternoon (CET). “We have hope that others are still alive,” said Owens. However, he admitted that the weather off the island of Terranova was “challenging” for the search operation by plane, helicopter and a coast guard ship. The visibility is low and the waves up to four meters high.
Even in distant Spain, hopes were now very slim that the missing would be able to survive long in the ice-cold and stormy waters of the Northwest Atlantic. And they got smaller by the minute. After all, in the afternoon (CET) half a day had already passed since the accident. María Ramallo, the mayor of Marín, the hometown of the shipwreck, made no secret of her hopelessness. She spoke of “a tragedy of a dimension that we cannot remember here”. “This is a very sad day for the whole region,” she said.
Concern soon gripped the whole country on Tuesday. And also the government palace Palacio de la Moncloa in Madrid. “We are following the search and rescue efforts with fear and concern,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted. He expressed his condolences and affection to the families of those affected. For the Spanish media, it was the main news of the day – even before Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s crisis mission in Moscow and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Madrid.
The spokeswoman for the Spanish government, Isabel Rodríguez, admitted in Madrid that many deaths were feared. According to the Spanish Sea Rescue Service, 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three Ghanaians were on board at the time of the accident. For the time being, nothing was known about the cause of the sinking. According to Spanish media, several ships and helicopters from the Canadian sea rescue service as well as some fishing boats from Portugal and Spain, among others, are taking part in the rescue operation.
According to Owens, the maritime situation center in Halifax received information about a shipwreck shortly after midnight local time and immediately dispatched a helicopter, a plane and a coast guard ship and asked other ships in the area to participate in the search. “The ship has not been found and we suspect it has sunk.” dpa
