Britain has sent a military plane to help US authorities in the hunt for four British yachtsmen missing in the Atlantic Ocean, the British Ministry of Defence said yesterday.
The sailors on board the yacht Cheeki Rafiki went missing on Friday last week as they were returning to Britain from a sailing event in Antigua in the Caribbean.
They had reported on Thursday that the 12m vessel was taking on water, forcing them to change course to head to the Azores. They were about 1,000km east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, at the time.
Britain said a Hercules military transport aircraft had been deployed to join the international search, which was resumed on Tuesday after a public appeal backed by UK politicians.
“The Royal Air Force’s contribution to the search operation ... will provide additional capability and resilience to the resumed search led by US and Canadian forces,” British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement.
US Coast Guard spokeswoman Lisa Novak on Tuesday said that the search for the crew of the Cheeki Rafiki had been restarted “at the request of the British government.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron sent the coast guards his thanks.
The US Coast Guard said six vessels, two US aircraft and a Canadian military plane were involved in the new operation.
The US Coast Guard, Canadian aircraft and merchant vessels spent more than two days searching for captain Andrew Bridge, 22, and crew members James Male, 23, Steve Warren, 52, and Paul Goslin, 56.
The effort was called off on Sunday amid treacherous weather.
The suspension of the search caused an uproar in Britain. Almost 200,000 people signed an online petition asking coast guards to keep looking, and families of the missing men appealed to British politicians for help.
Goslin’s daughter Claire was among those who signed the online petition at change.org.
“There is every chance that the sailors could be alive either inside the hull of the vessel, or in the life raft,” said sailor Ellen MacArthur, who twice broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe.
“There are examples of both types of survival, and in both cases for extended periods of time,” she said.
James Male’s father, Graham, said the families were “absolutely over the moon” at the resumption of the search and were optimistic they would find out what had happened to the Cheeki Rafiki.
“We have to get some kind of resolution now,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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