SEARCH FOR OVERDUE VESSEL SUSPENDED
PORTSMOUTH, Va. – The search for an overdue vessel that began Monday evening in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea was suspended this morning by the Coast Guard.
Beatty F. Thompson, 85, of George Town, Cayman Islands, and Bensley O. Scott, age and hometown unknown, left Pensacola, Fla., for the Caymans on April 4 in Thompson’s 38-foot sport fisher Re-Run. When the vessel did not arrive in the islands over the weekend as expected, a family member contacted the Coast Guard Monday.
A Coast Guard C-130 airplane from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla., an HU-25 airplane from Air Station Mobile, Ala., the Coast Guard Cutters Tahoma and Swordfish, RCC Mexico, the Grand Cayman Island Marine Police and maritime forces from Cuba assisted in the search.
The rescue units searched an area over 39,000 square nautical miles in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea before suspending the search at 9:30 a.m.
The air temperature has been 75 degrees, and the water temperature has been 70 degrees in the area of the search. The vessel had neither a life raft nor an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) onboard.
