VICENTE

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13 still missing after sinking of ferry

After the sinking of the "Vicente" which had on board 18 crew and eight passengers, including a child, four nautical miles from the port of Vale dos Cavaleiros, 11 people were recovered alive and two dead until Jan 9. The first three were rescued within hours of the sinking by one of the vessels involved in the rescue operations. The other 10 castaways were located in the morning on one of the islets between the islands of Fogo and Brava, where they were picked up by a helicopter of the 802 SAR Squadron based on Gando, Gran Canaria, of the Spanish Air Force. They were delivered on Fogo at 4.30 p.m. The hope to find the missing, among them a four year old boy, was dwindling on Jan 10. The ferry had been due to arrive at São Filipe on Fogo Island on Jan 8 at 7 p.m. but capsized short before the arrival there. Authorities were using several boats, a plane and a helicopter to continue the search for the remaining 13. On Jan 10 a P-3 aircraft of the Portuguese Air Force took off the Air Base of Montijo at 2:00 a.m. with 13 crew members and specific equipment on board and joined the search at 07.00 a.m. Bad weather, a poor conditions and overloading of the ship may have contributed to the sinking. Two crew members who were rescued said that the captain who was from Cuba was warned in Praia before the departure that the ship was overloaded but in spite of that decided to make the trip to Fogo. One of the survivors, João Domingos Tavares, said the vessel left the capital of Cape Verde's port with a six-degree tilt. A.o. the ship had loaded six containers with supplies for the new regional hospital of the islands of Fogo and Brava. It was the fifth incident with boats in Cape Verde, since September 2013 when the cargo ship "Rotterdam", with six crew members on board, disappeared hours after leaving the Port of Praia and to this day no one knows of the whereabouts. Later, a passenger ship collided with the fuel tanker "Cipreia", and in 2014 two other ships ran aground at the coast of Santiago and near Boavista.

one dead, 15 missing after ferry sinking

The "Vicente" capsized and sank on Jan 8, 2015, around 8 p.m. four miles off its destination, the port of Sao Filipe on Fogo Island, Cape Verde, enroute from Praia. Three passengers were rescued by nearby vessels or boats, several passengers and crew went missing. The ship was carrying 26 people and six containers when it sank in waves of more than three meters height. The rough conditions made the search four nautical miles off Port Vale dos Cavaleiros difficult. Until the evening of Jan 9, ten people were rescued, and one body was recovered. The other 15 were still missing.Rescuers were working with two boats that were not adapted to the relief efforts. An Angolan aircraft was requested as support. Also a Spanish helicopter attended.