10 killed, 11 missing after Spanish fishing boat sinks off Newfoundland coast

A Spanish fishing boat sank off the coast of Newfoundland, killing at least 10 people, a Spanish official said Tuesday. Three crew members have been rescued and the remaining crew members are missing.

Search operations are ongoing to locate the rest of the crew of the sunken vessel, Spanish government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said, adding that authorities were following the incident "with concern." The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax told CBC News there were 24 crew members onboard the vessel when it sunk.

Stephen Waller, the acting regional supervisor of maritime search and rescue with JRCC Halifax, said harsh weather and waves over five metres impeded the search early Tuesday, but conditions improved throughout the day.

"The water temperature is the biggest problem. Survivability in these water temperatures is is quite short," Waller said.

Three more bodies were recovered from the vessel as of 8 p.m. NT, bringing the number of reported deaths to 10.

Waller said the search will continue overnight with the goal of locating survivors, but as time passes the chance of finding any gets slimmer.

He said the search will be reevaluated Wednesday morning.

"We will have to obviously terminate the search [at some point], but that's a decision for tomorrow," Waller said.

He said multiple air and marine resources are currently assisting in the search for the rest of the crew. Marine resources include three fishing vessels, an offshore supply ship and a coast guard vessel expected to arrive by 11 p.m. NT.

Air resources include three helicopters rotating in and out depending on crew and fuel needs, two Hercules aircraft and one PAL aircraft.

According to Waller, there were two life rafts onboard the vessel, and the three survivors were located on one of them. Three of the deceased were also found on a life raft, while the other four were recovered from the water. 

The 50-metre-long fishing boat, called the Villa de Pitanxo, operates out of northwest Spain's Galicia province and sank around 1 a.m. ET in rough seas, the regional representative of the Spanish government, Maica Larriba, told Spanish public radio.

She said the crew comprised 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and at least three Ghanaians.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the leader of the Galicia province, told reporters two Galician fishing boats were in the area and recovered most of the bodies.