The mission to search, locate and inspect the wreck of the ship ‘Villa de Pitanxo’ has already given its first results. Sponsored by the National Court and the Permanent Commission for the Investigation of Maritime Accidents and Incidents (CIAIM), and paid for by the Government, it searches the waters of Newfoundland (Canada) for the ship that sunk more than 15 months ago, on February 15, 2022 , to investigate what happened and this weekend has located the metal structure of the boat.
The ship Ártabro of the ACSM Shipping company arrived last Sunday, May 28, at the area of ??the sinking and carried out a daily zigzag sweep of about 25 square kilometers until it located a metallic structure that could be the ‘Villa de Pitanxo’. On Saturday, an underwater robot (‘remoted operated vehicle’, ROV) descended about 800 meters deep, took images of the wreck and confirmed that it is the Galician fishing vessel.
With this discovery, the first part of the mission is completed and a crucial process is faced to find out what happened in this shipwreck, in which 21 of the 24 sailors on board died. After an external inspection, the ROV will try to record the wreck up close and then access to the interior of the wreck will be studied to collect evidence that will help the double investigation opened at the CIAIM and the National Court. The judicial case investigates the shipowner, Pesquerías Nores, and the boss of Villa de Pitanxo, Juan Padín, for 21 alleged crimes of reckless homicide and many others against the safety of workers.
The families of the 21 sailors who died in the shipwreck described this Sunday as “very positive news” the location of the ship. Its spokesperson, María José de Pazo, recalled that the ‘Villa de Pitanxo’ “is not just a ship within evidence of a judicial process”, but that it is a place where 21 loved ones died and that they consider “the tomb of 12 that have disappeared”. Rescue efforts after the shipwreck allowed nine bodies to be located, but another 12 sailors are still missing.
It is, for the families, “a very serious issue that touches us in the depths of our being”, hence the emotion with which they are living this whole process. The efforts of the relatives themselves have been crucial in achieving this mission to inspect the wreck, which has been marked by controversy. First, due to the initial refusal of the Government to carry it out and, once awarded, because the ship left the port of Vigo without all the experts on board and without authorization from the National Court, which in a harsh order asked the Ministry of Transport for explanations. for non-compliance with the instructions he had given her. Finally, on Friday, May 26, the ship Ártabro approached San Juan de Terranova to pick up two experts who had not embarked in Galicia, one judicial and the other on behalf of the party.
Five experts are traveling on the ship Ártabro: two judicial experts, one appointed by the families, one from CIAIM and another observer from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The three survivors, the captain; his nephew, Eduardo Rial; and the sailor Samuel Kwesi, provide different versions of what happened and the reports made by these experts will be key to clarifying unknowns that remain unresolved since the last signal from the ship’s blue box was received at 4:19 p.m. February 2022 at 250 nautical miles from Newfoundland.
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