HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Coast Guard suspended the active search for the 10 missing crewmembers possibly aboard a life raft from an adrift Taiwanese fishing vessel approximately 550-miles northeast of Midway Island on Wednesday, Jan. 13.
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A Coast Guard aircrew located the fishing vessel Yong-Yu-Sing No. 18 on Friday, Jan. 1, but there was no sign of the 10 crewmembers. A single life raft was also missing.
Crews from the Coast Guard, Navy and good Samaritans conducted 34 searches over the course of 80 hours that covered over 44,000 square miles.
The Coast Guard said, challenging weather made the search difficult.
“As a lifesaving service making the decision to suspend a search is never easy. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the mariners. Coast Guard and Navy aircrews along with our maritime surface partners put forth great effort searching in extremely challenging weather, but unfortunately there has been no sign of the missing mariners and the Coast Guard has suspended the active search tonight at sunset pending further developments.”
Coast Guard 14th District chief of response Captain Craig O’Brien
The Coast Guard reported winds were greater than 20 mph and wave heights were around 11-25 feet throughout the course of the search.
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