BUENOS AIRES – One person died, a second person was reported missing and 25 others were rescued after the sinking of a Spanish-flagged fishing boat about 570 kilometers (354 miles) off Comodoro Rivadavia, a city in the southern Argentine province of Chubut, the navy said Wednesday.
The crew of the Dorneda, who boarded several life rafts after the sinking of the ship, were found Wednesday morning by another fishing boat that was sent by the Argentine navy.
Although the cause of the sinking has not yet been announced, the spokesman of the Argentine navy, Enrique Balbi, said on the Todo Noticias television news outlet that preliminary investigations point to the flooding of the engine room after the trawl net was retracted, in addition to “bad weather.”
“When the boat started sinking, the life rafts were activated and deployed, which allowed most of the crew to survive,” Balbi said.
According to the spokesman, the crew included Spanish nationals, Moroccans, Peruvians and Indonesians.
The crew member who died has not yet been identified, while the search for the missing person is being led by the Argentine navy’s Coordinating Center for Search and Rescue, which has ordered fishing vessels in the area to continue the search.
The rescued crew members were taken to a hospital in Puerto Madryn to receive medical attention.
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