Nine dead after Spanish fishing boat sinks off the Falkland Islands

Nine people have died and four others are missing after a Spanish fishing boat sank in the South Atlantic. said a Spanish government official.

The 27-member crew abandoned the Argos Georgia and boarded life rafts when the ship took on water on Monday, about 200 nautical miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands.

Pedro Blanco, the Spanish government representative in the northwestern region of Galicia, said 14 of the people on board survived.

Officials in the Falkland Islands said some people had been rescued by a fisheries patrol vessel and two other fishing boats, and the search for the other missing crew members was ongoing.

The government of the Falkland Islands – a British overseas territory – had previously described conditions in the South Atlantic as “extremely challenging”, including gale-force winds and waves reportedly up to eight metres high.

A military helicopter was forced to abort its search and rescue operation due to sea conditions and distance from the mainland. It had returned to the Falkland Islands to refuel but was forced to interrupt its mission due to deteriorating weather conditions.

According to the Spanish government, ten crew members were from Spain, eight from Russia, five from Indonesia and the others from Uruguay and Peru.

The Falkland Islands authorities, who coordinated the rescue operation, did not initially confirm any of the fatalities but expressed their condolences to the affected families.

Two Spanish crew members died and two others were missing, said Pedro Blanco. All four were from Galicia.

The rescued people will be taken to Port Stanley for hospital treatment, officials said.

Thirteen of the survivors were brought back to port on the patrol vessel Lilibet, another was on board the fishing boat Robin M Lee, which, like the Argos Georgia, is based in Galicia.

According to ship tracking website Marine Traffic, the Argos Georgia left Port Stanley for fishing grounds on Sunday evening.

Argos Froyanes, the fishing company that owns the 2018-built longliner, declined to comment on its crew and the search operation when asked by BBC News.

According to Spanish reports, the boat had unloaded its cargo in Port Stanley and returned to continue fishing when the boat’s hull began to leak, causing what authorities called “uncontrolled flooding.”

A distress call was made on Monday afternoon, triggering an air and sea rescue operation coordinated by the British Coast Guard, the British military and the governments of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

The crew climbed onto life rafts and hours later the boat sank.