Francis Leon, missing crew member of St Paul fishing vessel, still not found |07 March 2020

The incident of the missing person at sea, Francis Leon, was reported to the Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration by the chief executive of the Islands Development Company (IDC) around 5.51pm on Wednesday March 4, 2020, and subsequently the matter was immediately reported to the Seychelles Coast Guard and other concerned agencies.

Mr Leon was a crew member on board fishing vessel St Paul that was currently at anchorage outside Farquhar Island.

According to report received Mr Leon was in a small fibre glass boat with three other crew members when their boat capsized.

The three other crew members managed to swim back to fishing vessel St Paul while Mr Leon went missing.

The Farquhar Island manager was notified of the incident around 5.17pm by the skipper of vessel St Paul.

Three boats and six personnel from the Blue Safari Company based on the Island of Farquhar were immediately mobilised to search the area until sunset but Mr Leon was not found.

The Seychelles Air Force Plane was airborne at 5am on Thursday March 5, taking on board SCG divers, Marine Police and Marine Accident Investigation Board (MAIB) members and landed on Farquhar Island around 7.45am to conduct aerial search around Farquhar Island.

Patrol Ship PS Topaz has also been diverted to sail to Farquhar Island to assist with the search and rescue operation and was expected to arrive at Farquhar at around 7am yesterday (Friday March 6).

The search and rescue operation is expected to continue until tomorrow, Sunday March 8, 2020.

Contributed