Four dead, search continues for 15 missing from Spanish fishing boat off Newfoundland

Published February 15, 2022 at 10:11 am

HALIFAX — A Canadian rescue ship and aircraft are involved in the search for a Spanish fishing vessel that sank off Newfoundland with the loss of at least four crew members, while another 15 are missing according to Spanish authorities.

Lt.-Cmdr. Brian Owens, a spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax, says a distress signal was received just after midnight from a vessel located more than 460 kilometres east of St. John’s, N.L.

Owens confirms three survivors and four bodies were found in a life raft by another Spanish fishing boat that was in the area.

He says a Cormorant helicopter, a C130 Hercules aircraft and the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cygnus are searching, along with multiple boats that are in the vicinity, although visibility is reduced and there are four-metre seas.

Authorities in Spain have confirmed the vessel Villa de Pitanxo sank around 1 a.m. E.T. in rough seas.

Spanish authorities said the vessel operates out of Spain’s northwestern Galicia region.