The family of a 62-year-old US rower missing in the Atlantic Ocean was today continuing a privately funded search operation off the west coast of Ireland.
Retired heart specialist Mr Nenad Belic was last heard from 400 miles off the Cork coast a week ago. A distress signal was picked up 210 miles west of Bantry Bay last Sunday, sparking a major search.
But there was no sign of the rower or his 21-foot boat, the Lun. The operation was called off.
His son Adrian (32) chartered a British-based light aircraft yesterday and began to search off the Galway coast.
He said he "clung to the hope" his father had survived and that his boat might be drifting, as no wreckage had been found.
"We are going back out because I think he is still alive. No one has spotted any debris of the craft, it was built to withstand waves far larger than there were last weekend," he said. "He is so close, we cannot give up".
The boat, which Mr Belic made himself was "unsinkable", he said.
The search is expected to last until tomorrow.
PA