Please pray hard for Toby, Andy, and their crew on the Elite Navigator to be located safe and well!!! Extra prayers are sent from here at home and to my hometown for our friends and family. May God be on our side. Bring’er home, boys!! We’re waiting to hear some good news!! A community on Newfoundland’s east coast is anxiously waiting for news about a missing fishing vessel that is the focus of an intense search, according to the mayor.
The 15-meter Elite Navigator vessel has not been heard from since Wednesday evening. The boat’s last known location was about 300 kilometers northeast of Gander. Mayor Mike Tiller of New-Wes-Valley said the people of his community are worried and anxious for any updates, hoping the vessel will be found.
“Right now, it’s just hope. The biggest thing now is to hope that everything is okay and they just had some mechanical issues and communication problems and that they’re going to be found okay,” Tiller told CBC News. The missing vessel has a crew of seven, with five from New-Wes-Valley, one from Centreville-Wareham-Trinity, and another from the Gander Bay region.
“They were out for a trip of turbot. I think they were due back in Valleyfield yesterday afternoon. And I guess when they didn’t show up of course that’s what set off the initial alarms,” said Tiller.
The close-knit community is hoping for a positive outcome. “It’s a small town, 2,220 people, so you do know 90 percent of the population for sure,” said Tiller. “It’s anxiousness not knowing. Not knowing is the worst part.”
The search increases
The Canadian Coast Guard is continuing its search for a missing fishing vessel off the coast of Newfoundland and is drawing on all available resources, said Len Hickey, senior public affairs officer of Halifax’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. Hickey said that more assets have been added to the search for the missing vessel.
“Unfortunately we are unable to locate the vessel at this time,” Hickey told CBC News on Friday morning. The boat’s last transponder notice was made at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Hickey said. Four Coast Guard vessels are part of the search effort, as well as a Cormorant helicopter and Hercules aircraft.
PAL Airlines is also in the air using sensors to try to locate it, he said, and several fishing vessels are also involved. He said Friday’s search was different from the previous day because of the additional number of assets being used.
“They also include drift charts,” he said. Drift charts are the calculations JRCC and search and rescue technicians use to predict where a vessel may have moved after losing propulsion. Hickey said his office is doing everything It can to find the vessel in this critical period. “It’s always important, Of course, to try and find a vessel as soon as possible.”
