10 killed, 11 missing after Spanish fishing boat sinks off Newfoundland coast

A Spanish fishing boat sankoff the coast of Newfoundland, killing at least 10 people, a Spanish officialsaid Tuesday. Three crew members have been rescued and the remaining crew membersare missing.

Search operations are ongoing to locate the rest of the crew of the sunken vessel, Spanish government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said, adding that authorities were following the incident "with concern." The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax told CBC News there were 24 crew members onboard the vessel when it sunk.

Stephen Waller, the acting regional supervisor of maritime search and rescue with JRCC Halifax, said harsh weather andwaves over five metresimpeded the search early Tuesday, but conditions improved throughout the day.

"The water temperature is the biggest problem. Survivability in these water temperatures is is quite short," Waller said.

Three more bodies were recovered from the vessel as of 8 p.m. NT, bringing the number of reported deaths to 10.

Waller saidthe search will continue overnight with the goal of locating survivors, but as time passes the chance of finding any gets slimmer.

He said the search will be reevaluated Wednesday morning.

"We will have to obviously terminate the search [at some point], but that's a decision for tomorrow," Waller said.

He said multiple air and marine resources are currently assisting in the search for the rest of the crew. Marine resources include three fishing vessels, an offshore supply shipand a coast guard vessel expected to arrive by 11 p.m. NT.

Air resources includethree helicopters rotating in and out depending on crew and fuel needs, two Hercules aircraft and one PAL aircraft.

According to Waller, there were two life rafts onboard the vessel, and thethree survivors were located on one of them. Three of the deceased were also found on a life raft, while the other four were recovered from the water.

Cause of sinking unknown

The 50-metre-long fishing boat, called theVilla de Pitanxo, operates out of northwest Spain's Galicia province and sank around 1 a.m. ETin rough seas, the regional representative of the Spanish government, Maica Larriba, told Spanish public radio.

She said the crew comprised16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and at least threeGhanaians.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the leader of the Galicia province, told reporters two Galician fishing boats were in the areaand recovered most of the bodies.

Waller the cause of the tragedy is still unknown. Hesaid no mayday call was issuedand the JRCC hasn't yet been able to interview the survivors.

"It appears whatever did happen happened quickly," he said.

Ealier on Tuesday, Lt.-Cmdr. Brian Owens, senior public affairs officer with the JointRescue Coordination Centre in Halifax,said the JRCC learned of anemergency beacon coming from a fishing vessel about 250 nautical miles, or 460 kilometres, east of St. John's shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

At that time,the JRCC dispatched a CH149 Cormorant helicopter, a Hercules aircraftand the Canadian Coast Guard ship Cygnus. Other fishing vessels in the area assisted in thesearch too, Owens said.

He said the emergency position-indicating radio beacon is an international system and the signal is received by local authorities near the vessel. Owens said it isn't common for the JRCC to get alerts from the system, but it responds when an alert like the one from the Spanish vesseldoes come through.

The sinking comes 40 years to the day after 84 men died in the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, an oil rig off the Grand Banks ofNewfoundland.

Record tragedy for Spanish port town

The boat's owner, Grupo Nores, didn't immediately reply to calls or written questions. According to its website, the group operates fishing fleets in waters off Argentina, Canada, Morocco, Guinea-Bissau andSenegal as well as in the North Sea.Refinitiv data showsthe Villa del Pitanxo left the Galician port of Vigo on Jan. 26.

The news was a tragic blow to the port town of Marin in northwestern Galicia, where many make a living by the sea. Marin Mayor Maria Ramallo said the sinking of the boat was the biggest tragedy on record for the community.

"We can't remember anything worse than this," Ramallo told Spain's state news agency, EFE.

The survivors included the vessel's 53-year-old skipper and his 42-year-old nephew, according to La Voz de Galicia, a Spanish newspaper. The two men contacted their families by phone, the paper reported.

According to Waller, the survivors had hypothermia but did not otherwise require medical attention.

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