In statements, the captain of the Port of Caminha, Fernando Pereira, announced that today’s search operations by sea, land, and air were unsuccessful and were suspended around 9:00 PM.
“Only some items belonging to the vessel were found, but there was no sign of the missing person or the dog,” he emphasized.
The alert regarding the disappearance of the man in his sixties, a resident of Caminha in the district of Viana do Castelo, and his dog was raised today at 9:20 AM.
According to the captain of the port and commander of the Maritime Police (PM) of Caminha port, “the intention is to resume searches on Saturday with support from the Volunteer Firefighters of Vila Praia de Âncora and Caminha.”
The surface searches will be conducted by the Naval Ship of the Portuguese Republic (NRP) Figueira da Foz, with an “underwater inspection scheduled using a team from the Hydrographic Institute, equipped with specific gear at the site of the shipwreck to try to locate the vessel.”
Subsequently, a PM diving team will explore “if the missing person is inside the sunken vessel, whose location is yet undetermined,” explained Fernando Pereira.
Today’s operations focused “across the entire perimeter of Ínsua, a Portuguese island at the mouth of the Minho River, on the northern border between Portugal and Spain, on the Spanish side of La Guardia, and along the coastline from the border [with Spain] to Vila Praia de Âncora, in the Caminha municipality.”
“Three helicopters were deployed, two Spanish and one Portuguese, alternating among themselves until 6:00 PM, at which point the aerial search was concluded,” he noted.
Captain Fernando stated that on Saturday “the intention is to extend surface searches, particularly with the NRP Viana do Castelo, the Atento lifeboat, and the PM vessel from Caminha up to Gelfa, in the parish of Âncora.”
“It will largely depend on what we detect in the dive to be conducted in the morning,” he highlighted.
The disappearance of the 62-year-old man and his dog occurred at the North Bar of Caminha port, northwest of Ínsua Island, between the Portuguese and Spanish banks.
