Search ends in tragedy after three found dead following boat capsize off Port Lincoln
Three bodies have been found and a 13-year-old boy and a man rescued after a family fishing trip tragedy off the state’s west coast.
A fishing boat which left Port Lincoln was found capsized overnight with two people winched to safety from a reef. Three other people are missing. File photo.
Police late Tuesday afternoon said that another two bodies had been found after one was recovered at about 6.30am near Spilsby Island, in Spencer Gulf.
An air and sea search found a second body at 9am in the same area, while the third missing person was found dead at about 2.15pm.
A 13-year-old boy and 44-year-old man from Adelaide’s Torrens Park who were found on a reef at 2am Tuesday morning and winched aboard a helicopter were taken to Port Lincoln Hospital suffering hypothermia.
Police said they were alerted after 8.30pm Monday that a fishing boat that had set out from Port Lincoln with five people aboard had not returned.
Police Superintendent Paul Bahr told a press conference on Tuesday morning that boat ramps in the region were checked and that “we located the vehicle and boat trailer at one of the ramps”.
This sparked a search involving the Police Water Operations Unit and a local Sea Rescue unit along with police and other aircraft.
Superintendent Bahr said it was believed the group aboard the boat were a family and friends.
Two people were rescued and a body found and boat recovered from near Spilsby Island (far right) off Port Lincoln.
Superintendent Bahr said the survivors reported in hospital that the group was fishing when disaster struck at about 4pm.
“They were swamped by a wave, overturning the boat and throwing everyone into the water,” he said, and there was no time to send a distress call, use flares or activate an emergency beacon.
The boat was found overnight near the reef and recovered and would be examined as part of the inquiry into the incident.
