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Multinational search for missing crewmember
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Posted on Dec 08 2013
POHNPEI, FSM—Multiple agencies from the Federated States of Micronesia, Japan, and the U.S. coordinated efforts, over the course of five days, to search for a crewmember that was reported missing from the Japanese fishing vessel Chokyu Maru 35. A total of 2,234 square nautical miles were covered during the search.
On Dec. 3, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Guam received a report of a missing crewmember from the Chokyu Maru 35 who was believed to have fallen overboard 407 nautical miles south of Pohnpei, FSM. The report was relayed from the Japanese Coast Guard through the U.S. Coast Guard’s 14th District.
Sector Guam coordinated search efforts from two commercial vessels, fishing vessel Chokyu Maru 2 and fishing vessel Fuku Ichi Maru 83, FSM patrol boat FSS Palikir, a U.S. Marine Corps C-130 aircraft operating in Guam, and a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 aircraft out of Barbers Point, HI.
Ten surface and six air searches were conducted during the multinational response. U.S. Coast Guard suspended searching on the afternoon of Dec. 7, after extensive searching did not result in locating the missing crewmember. [I](USCG)[/I]
