The US Coast Guard has suspended its search for two mariners who went missing after a foreign-flagged cargo sailship sank approximately 20 miles (32 kilometres) north of Great Inagua in the Bahamas early last week.
Rescue crews searched by air and sea for two of the crewmembers of the Vanuatu-flagged schooner De Gallant for approximately 44 combined hours since the initial report and covered more than 3,700 square miles (9,600 square kilometres).
Early in the morning (local time) of Tuesday, May 21, Coast Guard Atlantic Area watchstanders received distress notifications from De Gallant but were unable to make contact. Coast Guard Seventh District command center watchstanders received distress notifications from personal locator beacons in the same vicinity and launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter forward-deployed to Great Inagua to begin a search.
Around 08:00 on Tuesday, it was reported that the helicopter crew had located two liferafts with six survivors floating among a field of debris.
The survivors, who have been identified as French nationals, reported that De Gallant had encountered a passing storm and began taking on water. The crewmembers donned yellow survival suits before boarding liferafts when it became apparent the vessel was sinking.
The helicopter crew hoisted the six survivors and brought them to Coast Guard Air Station Miami in Opa Locka, Florida. All the survivors were reported to be in good health.
Two female crewmembers were unaccounted for and the coast guard, along with Royal Bahamas Defence Force, continued the search. However, the search effort needed to be called off on the evening of Wednesday, May 22.
