A major sea search operation will continue tomorrow for a 40 year old man and his 13 year old son missing since Sunday afternoon and feared drowned after they failed to return home from a fishing trip in west Cork.
The man, a Polish national living in Kenmare, had told friends that he was going fishing with his son, who was on holidays from Poland and that they would go to Castletownbere after fishing initially near Kenmare.
He had worked as a baker in Kenmare for the past two years and had been due to start work at 9pm on Sunday night but when he didn’t show up, it was assumed he had swapped his shift with a colleague.
His employer said it was only when the man failed to turn up at Shannon Airport on Monday afternoon to collect his father who was flying in from Poland for a holiday that people began to become concerned him and his son.
He was reported missing to Kenmare Gardai at about 9.30am this morning and they in turn contacted colleagues in Bantry and Castletownbere Garda stations after friends said he had mentioned going to Castletownbeere.
Supt Liam Horgan of Bantry Garda station said gardaí from Castletownbere met up with some of the missing man's friends and they found his black Nissan Micra parked and locked at Coominches about a half a mile from Cod’s Head between Allihies and Eyries.
A fishing rod found in the water at Cod's Head and another on some rocks and both were identified as belonging to the missing man.
Supt Horgan said that searchers believe that the man and his son may have been caught by a strong wave while fishing on the shoreline and that they were washed into the sea sometime on Sunday afternoon when weather conditions were windy with strong gusts and high seas.
Gardai notified Valentia Coastguard upon discovery of the fishing gear and a major search operation was launched today from north of Dursey Island back up the coastline of the Beara Peninsula around Cod’s Head and up towards Eyries.
John Falvey of Valentia Coastguard told The Irish Timesthe Irish Coastguard Sikorski helicopter from Waterford was tasked to carry out sweeps of the sea off Cod's Head while Castletownbere Lifeboat was also involved in the search operation.
Castletownbere Coastguard Inshore Boat also joined in the search as did the Derrynane Community Rescue Inshore Boat while Coastguard Cliff and Coastal Rescue teams also combed the rocky shoreline near where the fishing gear was found.
“If they did enter the water, then we wouldn’t be holding out much hope for them at this stage as two to three hours would be the most anyone would last in the sea,” said Mr Falvey adding that search conditions today were fair, with force four winds and one metre swells.
