Eight fishermen, including one Irishman, are feared drowned after a French fishing vessel sank in heavy seas off the Clare coast yesterday morning.
One of the missing men is Portuguese and six are French.
Three survivors were rescued in bad weather conditions 87 miles west of Loop Head by the Shannon-based Irish Coastguard Sikorsky helicopter and were flown to hospital in Galway. The three, including the French skipper, had been in the water for about four hours and were suffering from hypothermia and shock. Last night they were transferred to Merlin Park hospital.
The skipper of the 38-metre trawler, An-Orient, Mr Xavier Leaute, said he and two crewmen were on deck when a large wave hit the bow and the vessel listed and began to sink. There was no time to launch life-rafts or to alert the remainder of the crew below. They jumped into the water clutching lifebuoys.
"It was not possible to transmit a distress message, " Mr Leaute said. However, the vessel's emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was able to alert the rescue services, with the signal initially being picked up by aircraft and relayed through a French satellite system.
Mr Fernando Neves, the bosun, from Aveiro in Portugal, described seeing the second engineer in the water and swimming towards him. "He died in my arms," he said.
The Irishman who is still missing has been named as Mr Tomas Kelly, an experienced skipper and former vessel owner from Fenit, Co Kerry. Married with children, Mr Kelly had sold his part share in a fishing vessel earlier this year, and had joined the An-Orient only a week ago.
The Lorient-registered trawler was one of four part-owned by the French supermarket chain, Intermarche. The vessel was built in 1975 and had an extensive refit last year.
The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Fahey, last night said his thoughts were with the families of the missing fishermen. Mr Fahey praised the coastguard crew which lead the rescue mission.
Weather conditions were bad at the time of the accident, with 50-knot west-north-west winds and a six-to eight-metre swell.
