Shipwreck off Canada: the wreck of the Spanish trawler located a year later

The wreck of the Spanish trawler “Villa de Pitanxo”, whose sinking in February 2022 off the coast of Canada left 21 dead or missing, has been located at the bottom of the ocean, authorities and relatives of the victims announced on Monday.

“The wreckage of the Villa de Pitanxo was found in the area where everything indicated it was,” the Spanish transport ministry said in a statement.

The boat was found “very close to where the ship’s automatic identification system (AIS) gave its last signals”, the ministry added.

The “Villa de Pitanxo”, leaving from the Galician port of Marín (north-west of Spain), sank with 24 crew members on February 15, 2022, 450 kilometers from the coast of Newfoundland, to the East from Canada.

Only three sailors (two Spaniards and a Ghanaian) were saved from this sinking, the worst tragedy for the Spanish fishing sector for almost forty years. Nine bodies were recovered while twelve people were missing.

According to the authorities, a robot sent by the ship that discovered the “Villa de Pitanxo” was able to film the wreckage. The images will help investigators, who are trying to trace the conditions in which the boat sank.

“The images obtained from the wreckage will be incorporated into the investigation file”, currently in the hands of justice, while the three survivors maintain different versions of the accident, the ministry said.

Spokesperson for the families of the fishermen, María José de Pazo, assured on public television TVE that “the location of the boat (was) important for the investigation, but also from an emotional point of view for the families”.

Asked about the families’ possible hope of finding the bodies of the twelve missing, she admitted that “a lot of time (had) passed”.

The captain of the “Villa de Pitanxo” and his nephew claim that the boat sank after drifting in very rough seas following an engine failure.

But the other survivor, a Ghanaian sailor, says the net got caught on the seabed and the captain refused to cut it so as not to lose the catch.

The owner and the captain are under investigation for manslaughter.

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