Seattle Injury Lawyer Blog
The Coast Guard suspended its search for six persons near Galveston at 12 p.m., Tuesday. A mayday call came in from the captain of a fishing vessel Sunday, at 1:15 p.m., reporting that the vessel was taking on water. He reported that there were six people aboard who were abandoning ship and getting into an orange life raft. Because of the poor quality of the radio transmission, the name of the vessel was difficult for watchstanders to interpret, and was either Scallywag or Skylark.
The Coast Guard conducted 21 searches, utilizing 10 surface and air assets covering 2,855 square miles, which is larger than the state of Delaware. “The Coast Guard has saturated the search area for the past two days with no success in finding the life raft or any signs indicating that a vessel sunk,” Lt. Julio Gonzalez, command duty officer for Sector Houston-Galveston.
With no new developments or correlating information, the Coast Guard has suspended the active search for the possible missing persons but may resume the search if new information is received.
This is the type of situation where injured crewmembers or surviving family members would likely have a claim against the vessel owner and/or their employer.