Search Continues for Two Crew of Sunken French Fishing Boat
The search for two missing crew of a French fishing boat that sank off Plymouth continued into Sunday evening, with fresh lifeboat crews, a radar-equipped coastguard aircraft and a large number of civilian vessels sweeping the waters near the Eddystone Lighthouse. Three of the five crew were rescued and taken to hospital after Saturday evening’s distress call. Mayday relay broadcasts continued asking passing vessels to keep a sharp lookout.
The vessel’s identification as a French fishing boat explains the search’s quiet intensity — the Channel’s fishing fleets, whatever flag they wear, are a single community to the lifeboat crews who go out for them, and the RNLI stations rotating through their second day embody an obligation older than any treaty. A night and a full day in Channel waters puts survival at the far edge of what cold-water physiology allows, and the coastguard’s continued Mayday relays signal a search not yet ready to become a recovery. What sank her — in weather that had already delayed ferries further east — will be for French investigators. Watch tonight’s search decision — and what the three survivors have told rescuers about those final minutes.