Coast Guard suspends search off coast for missing man, 3 children

BOSTON – The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday at 8:00 a.m. for a missing man and 3 children in the waters off Kennebunkport, Maine pending new information.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England command center received a radio distress call Saturday at 10:30 a.m. from a man reporting his boat capsizing with 3 children on onboard. The Coast Guard lost radio communications with the distress caller but has conducted a 22-hour search which included the following assets:

Coast Guard Station South Portland
Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor
Coast Guard Cutter Reef Shark
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod

Search patterns spanned a total of 1,523 square nautical miles and included Maine Marine Patrol, Wells Police Department and other local participants.

“We take all calls for help seriously,” said Cdr. James McLay, Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator at Sector Northern New England. “We utilized every resource at our disposal and applied an extraordinary amount of search effort to locate these boaters. If there was anyone in distress we gave them the best possible chance for rescue.”