Search called off for fishing boat's crew

A search for five Polish fisherman whose boat went missing in the Baltic Sea was called off on today after rescue workers could only find remnants of the vessel, officials said.

The search began yesterday when the Danish navy was conducting an annual rescue exercise in the area with 23 vessels from seven countries and a plane taking part in the drill spotted a life buoy, a battered lifeboat, parts of a boat and an oil slick.

The parts turned out to be remnants of the fishermen’s 83-foot-long WLA-127 boat, which went missing about 135 miles west of Copenhagen at a time of relatively calm weather, the officials said.

Janusz Maziarz, head of the Sea Rescue Coordination Centre in Gdynia, Poland, said no mayday message had been received from the crew, or any automatic signals from the boat’s equipment that it was sinking.

Danish navy spokesman Hans Christian Iversen said the intensive search included 13 ships and four helicopters before it was called off this afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Polish Sea Rescue Service said the boat had left the Polish port of Darlowo on April 27.