Atlantic Destiny Sinks Off N.S

USPA NEWS -  All 31 crew members from the fishing vessel Atlantic Destiny were rescued late Tuesday night, before the vessel sank Wednesday morning, March 3rd. On the evening of March 2nd, the Captain made a mayday call requesting immediate assistance  after a fire onboard, which resulted in the vessel loosing power and taking on water.

The Tuesday night dramatic high seas rescue took place in 8 meter waves  approximately  120 nautical miles off of  the southwest coast of Nova Scotia on Georges Bank. Initially, 27 crew members were lifted off the vessel while the captain and 3 crew members remained on board. The complicated rescue mission was carried out by a Canadian CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue helicopter and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. 

A spokesperson for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre, Lt. Cmdr. Brian Owens, had this to say in a press release, "It's fairly treacherous, obviously you are on a floating cork in the ocean riding these waves and crests so it can be very challenging. You can imagine how a helicopter hovering over top, lowering a cable down to extract individual crew members to the helicopter, it certainly adds a level of risk to the operation. It took numerous trips by both helicopters to get everyone off the ship."

Phillip Morales, avionics electrician first class, with the United States Coast Guard said in an interview, "It was extremely challenging. This was one of the craziest rescues that I've been a part of, for the situation and how many hoists we had to do and how challenging it was trying to calm the aircraft to get the survivors picked up"

The Atlantic Destiny's Captain, 3 crew members, and two search and rescue technicians remained on board to attempt to stabilize the vessel.They were able to restore power and began pumping out water, however their effort failed resulting in the ship sinking on Wednesday. At around 0800, Wednesday, prior to the sinking, everyone evacuated the Atlantic Destiny to the waiting  Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cape Roger.

In a statement posted to the company website, on Wednesday March 3rd, by the owner of the Atlantic Destiny confirmed that the vessel had sunk into the ocean. Martin Sullivan, CEO of Ocean Choice  wrote, “While we are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our offshore fishing vessels we are extremely relieved and thankful that all of our 31 crew members were safely transported ashore and are currently in the process of reuniting with their families and loved ones."

All 31 crew members of the Atlantic Destiny have since been reunited with their loved ones. After the tragic year  2020 in Nova Scotia, a happy ending to what could have been a very negative outcome is a welcome sign of hope for better times ahead.