The search for three people and their vessel which mysteriously disappeared yesterday off the Co Down coast resumed at first light today. But the Coastguard has admitted the hunt is now for bodies and wreckage.
The three, all named Michael Greene, come from one family. The eldest was 54, his son was 32 and the youngest was eight. He had joined his father and grand- father for the fishing expedition as he was on mid-term holidays. The two adults were lifelong fishermen.
It is the second tragedy to strike the Greene family. Mr Hugo Greene, a brother of Mr Michael Greene snr, drowned in Kilkeel harbour 15 years ago.
The three were aboard the 10-metre wooden vessel the Tullaghmurry Lass which put to sea at 3.40 a.m. on Thursday. The alarm was raised at the Belfast Coastguard when the vessel did not return by 8 p.m. It normally fished within eight miles of Kilkeel harbour. The Tullaghmurry Lass was due to be decommissioned soon and this was one of her last expeditions.
Contact could not be established by radio or mobile phone and a search operation was mounted.
The Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter was tasked by Belfast Coastguard to cover a 1,000 square mile area off the Co Down coast along with a British helicopter based at Anglesey, Wales, a Wessex helicopter from RAF Aldergrove near Belfast, and an RAF Nimrod maritime surveillance aircraft.
They were joined by the Irish Lights tender Granuaile, which was designated as on-scene co-ordinator, RNLI lifeboats from Clogherhead, Co Louth, Newcastle and Kilkeel, Co Down, as well as Port St Mary and Peel in the Isle of Man, and vessels from the Kilkeel fishing fleet.
"I counted 36 smaller boats this afternoon, but then this is the kind of thing that will strike home to all the fishing communities along here," said a local woman.
The search area stretched from Dublin to Liverpool to Dundrum Bay, Co Down. At one point some 250 people were involved.
Conditions at sea were described as good, with visibility over eight miles, light westerly winds and calm waters.
Diesel slicks were reported south-east of Carlingford Lough last night within six miles of the coast. Flotsam was also spotted. Mr Brett Cunningham, a Coastguard district controller, said there was no probability of the three being alive.
Waters are normally about seven degrees at this time of year. Survival is not normal in such cold after about six hours.
The elder man's brother, Gabriel, said last night he believed the three were dead.
"It's so hard to deal with that. The wee lad has just gone through his mid-term break. His life was just to go out in the boat. All he wanted in his future life was to go to sea. For three to go in one go is totally devastating."
Mr Alex Slater, from the Fisherman's Mission in Kilkeel, last night visited the Greene family homes near the town and four miles away in Ballymartin.
"They are traumatised," he said. "There is no other way to describe it."
This is the second incident in Co Down waters in recent times. On January 30th, Mr Mark Spiers (22) died after the vessel he was working aboard in Carlingford Lough near Rostrevor capsized and sank. He was rescued but died later in a Newry hospital.
The Tullaghmurry Lass issued no distress call before its disappearance, fuelling speculation in Co Down fishing circles that it may have been involved in a collision with another vessel.
The vessel was equipped with communications systems, and there was a mobile phone on board.
The location of the debris and diesel slick discovered east of Carlingford Lough yesterday is on shipping routes used for the ports of Warrenpoint, Co Down, and Greenore, Co Louth. Both have significant merchant traffic.