Freighter crew searching for missing crewmember

An unnamed 53-year old crewman disappeared from the M/V Malto Hope on Tuesday night, but he wasn’t discovered missing until Wednesday. The vessel was as close as 40 miles from Attu in the Aleutian Islands when the crewman disappeared. But the exact location of where he may have gone overboard is unknown.

Lt. Cmdr. Bernie Auth of the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau said they dispatched a C-130 aircraft out of Kodiak to help search for the missing mariner. But the plane was only on scene for about a half-hour because of thick fog that restricted a search of the area.

Two Good Samaritan vessels also helped search the vicinity.

Auth said they issued a series of urgent marine broadcasts as the freighter continues searching for the missing man.

The Malto Hope is a 549-foot Panamanian-flagged bulk cargo carrier. MarineTraffic.com and VesselFinder.com both report that the vessel left Vancouver early last week for its trip west to Japan.

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