The bodies of two French fishermen who disappeared when their boat sank in the English Channel have been recovered, a French prosecutor's office confirmed on Saturday. The fishermen were part of the five-member crew of the vessel named The Maranello.
The distress call was made on Saturday, August 29, off the coast of Plymouth. The Maranello had encountered a problem with its fishing gear and contacted another trawler, The Stradale, for assistance. An intensive search operation was launched, involving multiple vessels and aircraft from the coastguard, RNLI lifeboats, and other nearby fishing boats.
The Stradale managed to rescue three of the five crew members before The Maranello sank. One of the rescued sailors was airlifted to Truro Hospital for treatment, while the other two were taken to Plymouth. All three rescued crew members have since returned to France.
The wreck of The Maranello was found days after the sinking, but the two missing fishermen remained unaccounted for until Saturday's recovery. Divers located and recovered the bodies of the two sailors off the coast of England, near Plymouth.
Alex Dehays, deputy public prosecutor in Saint-Brieuc, stated that an initial dive assessed the feasibility of the operation before divers recovered the bodies. The investigation, led by the maritime gendarmerie in Brest, will now focus on determining the causes of death.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was first alerted to the incident shortly after 6 p.m. on August 29. The French patrol vessel FS Flamant and an aircraft from Humberside Airport were deployed to aid the search. Search and rescue helicopters and RNLI lifeboats joined the operation throughout the night and into the following day, August 30.