The crew member rescued alive from the pleasure boat that sank off Tróia, in the municipality of Grândola (Setúbal), is 62 years old and, among the four missing, there is a 12-year-old boy, the Maritime Police revealed.
The captain of the Port of Setúbal and local commander of the Maritime Police, Serrano Augusto, told Lusa that the five people on the boat “were from the Santiago do Cacém area”, also on the Alentejo coast.
“Both the 62-year-old helmsman, who was the person rescued alive, and the four passengers are Portuguese and from the Santiago do Cacém area,” he said.
The missing “are all male”, the commander also told Lusa. Although he recognizes that, for the time being, he doesn’t know if there are any relations between the four, “there is a father and a son, the 12-year-old boy”.
Serrano Augusto also explained that “the pleasure boat sank around 7:00 am, about a mile and a half” off the coast of Tróia, although the alert was only received “around 10:00 am”.
“The boat sank and sank completely,” he added, noting that “there are objects and equipment” from the boat that “are floating in the water nearby”.
In a statement released in the meantime, the National Maritime Authority (AMN) confirmed that the boat sank this morning “about a mile and a half (approximately three kilometers) off the coast of Tróia”.
“The National Maritime Authority is searching for three adults and a 12-year-old child who are missing at sea,” said the authority.
After the alert, received at “10:05 am”, “a vessel from the Setúbal Maritime Police Local Command and a vessel from the Sesimbra Life-Saving Station” were immediately activated, the AMN said, indicating that searches are still underway on land, mobilizing elements from the Grândola fire department and the Comporta GNR station.
“A Portuguese Navy ship and a Portuguese Air Force aircraft were activated at the scene,” the statement also said.
Speaking to Lusa at around 1:10 p.m., Serrano Augusto said that a Koala helicopter from the Portuguese Air Force (FAP) was arriving at the scene to take part in the search.
The helmsman of the shipwrecked boat “was rescued by a nearby vessel”, said the AMN, which also pointed out that the Maritime Police’s Psychology Office had been activated and was providing support.
Speaking to Lusa this morning, the local commander of the Setúbal Maritime Police admitted that the boat may have capsized when it was hit by “a blow from the sea, which caused the passengers to be ‘spat out’ into the water”.
