On May 6, 35-year-old Deckhand Jeffrey Costar went missing from MV Night Crossing, a 23-meter charter boat based in Australia. According to the local The Observer, Costar went missing between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Sunday, May 6, while the vessel was anchored near Swain Reefs in Central Queensland, prompting a search and rescue operation at first light.
The vessel was reportedly on a fishing trip with 17 passengers and four crewmembers on board at the time. It’s a challenging search area, covering about 50 nautical miles by 75 nautical miles. Initially, four aircraft, three commercial vessels, six dories, and a police boat helped with the search. By Sunday evening, Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Challenger jet and an Australian Border Force aircraft joined the search amid rough weather. There were “tough conditions on Sunday with rescuers up against ‘roughly 20 knot winds and rain squalls,” reports The Observer.
Although the aerial search for the missing Sunshine Coast deckhand was suspended Sunday evening, it resumed “at first light” on Monday, May 7th.
UPDATE 5/8/2018
The search has been called off for Deckhand Jeffrey Costar, The Morning Bulletin reports. The decision was announced this afternoon in Australia, after police consulted with other agencies and briefed Costar’s family. The police maintain that Costar could not have survived for this long in the water, the paper reports.