The US Coast Guard was facing calls last night to return to the doomed British yacht Cheeki Rafiki, to check whether the bodies of any of its four crew members were trapped inside. The coastguard located the boat a week after the vessel went missing.
The US Coast Guard was facing calls last night to return to the doomed British yacht Cheeki Rafiki, to check whether the bodies of any of its four crew were trapped inside.
According to The Sunday Times (£), a US navy search team did not conduct an extensive underwater search of the vessel or enter the flooded cabin. Instead, a “surface swimmer” knocked on the hull, photographed the life raft and reached an arm’s length below the waterline.
“Surface swimmers are not trained divers and do not perform sub-surface operations,” the US Coast Guard said in a statement.
With no sign of a life raft or of debris, and with nearly 20,000 square miles having been searched, the hunt continues for another day.
Veteran yachtsman Tony Bullimore tells ITV News that there is a "strong possibility" the yachtsmen are still alive in the life raft.