Charter fishing boat crewman missing in 'massive search area' off central Queensland
Updated
Four planes are scouring the seas off central Queensland as part of a "massive" search for a crew member missing from a charter fishing boat.
The 35-year-old man from the Sunshine Coast was last seen at 2:00am on Sunday and was reported missing at 4:00am.
An Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Challenger jet and an Australian Border Force aircraft have joined the search for the man around Swain Reefs, about 200 kilometres north-east of Yeppoon.
Search and rescue coordinator Sergeant Mark Dean said water police were battling rough conditions to patrol the reef.
"The search area is massive — it covers about 50 nautical miles by 75 nautical miles," he said.
"We have roughly 20 knot winds and rains squalls — we're doing our best to see if we can locate him.
"Police were notified as soon as he was discovered missing but unfortunately you can't search without light — we needed to get some daylight before we could actually start the search."
Four crew members and 17 passengers were on board the 23-metre MV Night Crossing, which operates out of Gladstone.
The search site is out of the range of helicopters and police want any boaties in the area to keep a lookout for the man.
Sergeant Dean said police were working alongside the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Canberra to locate the man.
"At this stage it's primarily a search and rescue operation for us, rather than the investigation side of things," he said.
"It is a substantial operation."
The company said on its website it offered six or seven-day charters departing from Gladstone marina every Friday afternoon.
Topics: emergency-incidents, maritime, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, rockhampton-4700, qld, australia, gladstone-4680, maroochydore-4558, yeppoon-4703, brisbane-4000
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