Two crew members remain missing after overnight search for stricken Channel vessel carrying five people
An RNLI lifeboat is among the vessels set to be deployed to search for five people on board a French fishing vessel reported to have sunk off Plymouth.The Newquay-based R924 Coastguard helicopter is expected to refuel at Newquay Airport before returning to assist in the search.
Lifeboat crews from Newlyn and Salcombe took over on Sunday morning, relieving Plymouth and Falmouth RNLI teams that had conducted an all-night search for two people still unaccounted for from a vessel that sent a distress signal south-west of Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth just after 6pm on Saturday. Three of the five people on board have been confirmed safe. HM Coastguard says the operation is continuing with multiple assets, and around a dozen civilian boats, including French fishing vessels, are involved in what officials described as an 'intensive search'.
A local news outlet reported the stricken vessel was a French fishing boat that sank, with the French Embassy said to be liaising with affected families.
A French naval patrol vessel, FS Flamant, was also deployed to the scene alongside a Coastguard aircraft tracked over the search area by Flight Radar.
Moderate to rough seas and deteriorating visibility overnight complicated the search as the UK's dry summer gave way to unsettled conditions off the Devon and Cornwall coast.
