As the search continued yesterday for two young people feared drowned following a boating accident off the Co Louth coast on Sunday evening, it emerged that four lifejackets were found on the boat by a rescue team.
There was no flare on the boat and initial reports indicated that over an hour passed before any authority was alerted to the incident.
The Minister for the Marine, Dr Woods, ordered an investigation within hours of the rescue operation beginning and an accident investigator was at the scene yesterday.
The search was being concentrated on a four-mile stretch of the coast between Dunany Point and Clogherhead. It was co-ordinated by Irish Marine Emergency Services and gardai in Drogheda, Co Louth.
Taking part in the search were the Clogherhead and Skerries lifeboats, the Garda underwater unit, Drogheda River Rescue and Boyne fishermen recovery units. Fishing boats from Clogherhead and Waterford also took part and IMES local units walked the shore.
The owner of the 16 ft fibreglass boat was on board when it overturned about 1 1/2 miles off Dunany Point at about 5 p.m. He began to swim towards the coast nearly two miles away. A relation of his who had been monitoring the boat through binoculars raised the alarm after it failed to return at the agreed time of 6 p.m. He then spotted the owner in the sea and began swimming towards him and assisted him to shore.
The IMES was alerted at about 6.30 p.m. and 50 minutes later its Sikorsky helicopter spotted two girls and a man who had been clinging to the overturned boat and airlifted them to safety.
They were two sisters aged between 10 and 12 years from Du leek, Co Meath, and a 48-year-old man from Readypenny, Co Louth. All were taken to Lourdes Hospital Drogheda.
A short time after the rescue, the Clogherhead lifeboat recovered the bodies of Mr James Russell (69), from Sheepgrange, Dro gheda, and Paul Callaghan (12), from Blackstick, Ardee, Co Louth.
The search was continuing last night for Paul's eight-year-old brother and their 20-year-old cousin.
The four families involved are related and some members had spent most of this month staying in the family home at Port, between Clogherhead and Dundalk. At about 3 p.m. on Sunday, four of the men and two girls and two boys decided to go fishing.
The dead were all known locally and many locals were shocked. The honorary secretary of the Clogherhead lifeboat, Mr Patrick Hodgins, said: "It is one of the worst tragedies we have had; they were very well known and have [had a holiday home] on the beach a long time. They are very much accustomed to boating and fishing . . ."