Two dead and one missing in the sinking of a fishing boat in Spain

UPDATE DAY

Two sailors are dead and a third is missing in the sinking of a fishing boat on Monday morning off the northern coast of Spain, while the other seven crew members were were rescued, regional authorities said. 

The boat, named Villaboa 1, sank at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) while near Cabo Mayor, at the northern end of the bay of Santander, the capital of Cantabria, where he had his base. The cause of the sinking is still unknown at this stage.

“There were ten crew members on board: seven were rescued, there is one missing and two dead,” the president of this region of northern Spain, Miguel Ángel Revilla, said on Twitter, lamenting ” a new misfortune at sea”.

The government representative (equivalent to a prefect) in the Cantabria region, Ainoa Quiñones, told Cadena Ser radio that the deceased were a Spaniard and a Ghanaian. The missing sailor is of Peruvian nationality.

According to Ms. Quiñones, one of the seven rescued crew members is in serious condition.

“ Terrible news”, wrote on Twitter the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, who said she hoped that “the search for the missing crew member will bring good news”.

The last great tragedy linked to the fishing in Spain dates back to February 15, 2022, when the vessel “Villa de Pitanxo” sank 450 kilometers off the island of Newfoundland, Canada, with 24 crew members.

Three sailors had survived. Of the 21 others, only nine bodies had been recovered. The boat was based in the port of Marín, in Galicia (north-west Spain).

According to the Spanish company Nores, owner of the vessel, the trawler sank after “a sudden engine stop principal, which left the boat without propulsion or direction, exposed to the wind and the waves”.

The crew was made up of 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three Ghanaians.