The disappearance of the crew of a Taiwanese fishing boat that was found drifting in waters near Hawaii early this year was caused by natural disaster, the Yilan Prosecutors’ Office said on Tuesday.
Bad weather led to the 10-strong crew to go missing, the office said, adding that it is closing the case after several months of investigation.
No indication of a crime has been found, it said.
Damage to the hull of the Yong Yu Sing No. 18 had likely been caused by strong wind and high waves after the vessel lost power, the office said.
The crew, consisting of a Taiwanese captain surnamed Lee (李) and nine Indonesian crew members, remain missing, the office said.
The ship’s navigation data showed that it was sailing in the proximity of a storm with a radius of more than 750 nautical miles (1,389km) when contact with the crew was lost, it said.
On Dec. 30 last year, the National Rescue Command Center received a report from Lee’s wife that she could not contact her husband and that she suspected the Yong Yu Sing No. 18, registered in Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳), had gone missing.
After the center requested assistance from US authorities, a search-and-rescue plane on Jan. 2 spotted the boat about 606 nautical miles east of the Midway Atoll.
Fishers from a nearby Taiwanese fishing vessel later boarded the drifting Yong Yu Sing No. 18 and found no one on the ship.
The boat was towed back to the port in Suao on March 8, and Yilan prosecutors were assigned to investigate the case.
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