A loved one with a picture of Martin Quino, one of the crew members who went missing when the Spanish trawler Villa de Pitanxo sank in stormy waters off Canada. It was Spain’s worst fishing tragedy in almost 40 years.Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP via Getty Images
In February 2022, a Spanish fishing trawler sank and has now been discovered on the seabed. Only three of the 24 crew members survived the accident.
The wreck of the Spanish fishing trawler Villa de Pitanxo, which capsized in 2022, has been found on the seabed off the coast of Canada. It was discovered very close to the point “where the ship’s automatic identification system (AIS) last gave a signal,” said the Spanish Ministry of Transport on Monday.
The Spanish trawler sank in February 2022 450 kilometers southeast of Newfoundland off the Atlantic coast of Canada for reasons that are still unclear. Only three of the 24 crew members survived the accident.
According to the Spanish authorities, a robot was able to film the shipwreck. The pictures should help the investigators to clarify the circumstances of the sinking of the fishing ship. The surviving crew members describe the course of the accident in different ways.
The captain of the “Villa de Pitanxo” and his nephew said the ship had sunk after being adrift in very rough seas as a result of an engine failure. The third survivor, a Ghanaian seaman, said the fishing net got stuck on the seabed and the captain refused to cut it lest he lose the catch.
The spokeswoman for the relatives of the dead fishermen, María José de Pazo, told TVE that the location of the ship was “important for the investigation, but also from an emotional point of view for the families”.
Nine victims of the shipwreck were found dead after the accident, the remaining twelve crew members were never found. (afp)
