A major rescue operaton has been mounted to reach the position of longliner Argos Georgia, reported to be taking on water around 200 nautical miles east of the Falkland Islands with a crew of 27 on board.
The crew are reported to have abandoned ship into liferafts and efforts are being made to reach them.
Argos Georgia requested assistance, contacting the Falkland Islands Maritime Authority. The situation on board is believed to have deteriorated over the last few hours, with the vessel suffering ‘uncontrolled flooding’ and conditions at the vessel’s location are challenging, with heavy seas and storm-force winds.
Both surface vessels and aircraft have been dispatched to Argos Georgia’s position. Aircraft have been able to monitor the positions of the life rafts as patrol vessel Lillibet and two fishing vessels conduct a search.
‘Operating at extreme range, a Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter from the BFSAI SAR Flight attempted to recover personnel from the scene yesterday evening but the attempt was unsuccessful in the face of extremely challenging weather conditions and very limited time on scene due to range,’ a Falklands Islands government representative stated.
‘The helicopter returned to Stanley Airport to refuel prior to a second attempt but the weather worsened further, and rotary wing SAR operations were suspended. As of this morning weather conditions mean the search area remains out of limits for helicopter SAR operations, but the situation is being reviewed regularly with a view to resuming operations as soon as possible.’
Argos Georgia is flagged to the British overseas territory of St Helena, and its owner is Argos Froyanes, a subsidiary of Norwegian longline operator Ervik Havfiske. The 54-metre, 13-metre breadth longliner was built at Tersan in 2018.
