![The Coastguard have found the two dead fishermen, following the rescue of three from a sinking boat. [Image @fashion_4_me/Twitter]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/8/27/660x290/b_502x220x82/the-coastguard-have-found-the-two-dead-fishermen-following-the-rescue-of-three-from-a-sinking-boat-image-fashion-4-metwitter_2082525.jpg "The Coastguard have found the two dead fishermen, following the rescue of three from a sinking boat. [Image @fashion_4_me/Twitter]")
The Coastguard found the two missing fishermen on Sunday, close to their boat which sank in the North Sea, 25 miles off the coast from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.
Three of the fishermen were rescued on Saturday after spending four hours adrift in their life raft. They were spotted by the Pacific Princess cruise ship, who managed to rescue the three men before the Coastguard arrived. However, they were told two other men were missing at the time, leading to the Coastguard launching a search for the foreign national fishermen.
Coastguard finds two missing fishermen
Coastguard helicopters and boats were launched to search for the two missing men. Crews on search and rescue helicopters finally found their dead bodies close to the wreckage of their fishing boat. The Coastguard airlifted the bodies to Humberside airport.
Coastguard operations controller Aimee Rampton said in a statement that they had located the bodies of the missing men near to the wreckage of their sunken fishing boat. Rampton went on to say that all units were then stood down and that their thoughts were with the family and friends of the dead fishermen.
Sad conclusion to a rescue
As reported by the BBC, the discovery of the dead crewmen was a sad conclusion to the initial, exciting rescue of the three fishermen by the cruise ship, after their distress flare was seen at around 18:45 BST.
The cruise ship managed to rescue the three men, while passengers lined the railing, cheering the rescue on.
Three fishermen rescued by #PacificPrincess cruise ship after their boat sank - two more men are still missing.https://t.co/mlQlO96laX pic.twitter.com/FS6bQvjGW4
— Anne Sewell (@anners2008) August 27, 2018
Canadian passenger Teena Dowd had originally spoken about the rescue.
She said she and many other passengers watched as the cruise ship managed to line up next to the life raft – initially to shelter them from the wind until the Coastguard arrived, but eventually managing to get close enough to put down a ladder to rescue the three men.
As noted by the Independent, Dowd later added that the passengers didn’t know until sometime later that two fishermen were still missing after their boat sank and that the Coastguard was searching for them.
The captain of the Pacific Princess made the announcement to keep the concerned passengers informed.
Coastguard helicopters and boat crews from Caister and Gorleston were launched to perform the search for the missing men on Saturday night and into Sunday. Formal identification still has to be performed on the two bodies and there were no details released relating to them, or the three men rescued on Saturday by the cruise ship. Humberside Police are currently attempting to contact the families of the dead fishermen.
