Coast guard keeps up search for missing yacht |28 October 2009
Unconfirmed reports in the international media say Somali pirates have taken the British
“The Lynn Rival left Seychelles on Thursday with two people on board,” said SCG commanding officer Lt-Col Michael Rosette yesterday.
“We received a distress call from the yacht in the morning on Friday and dispatched our aircraft, which searched the area the signal came from but did not find anything.
“We later sent our coast guard vessel the Andromache, which has been searching the area together with foreign ships and aircraft involved in combating piracy, but we have not yet traced the yacht.”
Other aerial searches were mounted over the weekend by Seychellois and European Union maritime patrol planes. Sea searches also involved forces from the EU, the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Lt-Col Rosette added: “We are monitoring the situation, and at the present moment there is no confirmation that the Lynn Rival has been taken by pirates, even if the probability of hijacking is high. We are pursuing all efforts with international partners to establish the facts.
“The distress signal we got is of the type that is beamed to a satellite and sent almost immediately to the nearest land beacon from the site of the original message. We must have got it within minutes.
“We normally advise all outgoing vessels on what we consider the safest routes, but once out at sea the crew decide where to pass.
He said the distress signal came from several hundred kilometres west of Mahe.
The British high commissioner to Seychelles, Matthew Forbes, said his office is in touch with the family in the UK and with the coast guard.