A family is living through moments of anguish as they await news of a missing 66-year-old Spanish businessman who reportedly fell overboard in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of Pylos, Greece. According to his family, he fell into the sea on August 18 and has not been heard from since. “The only thing my mother wrote were my father’s coordinates. Full stop — there is nothing else written. My mother did not keep a diary, my mother did not write how she felt,” his son said in a statement to Mega television.
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Pylos: “In 30 seconds, my father was gone”
The son of the 66-year-old man spoke to the Live News program, recounting the events that led to his father’s disappearance. “Last Sunday I spoke with my parents — they were going to leave Syracuse, Italy, heading for Pylos, Greece. On Monday, at around 7:00 in the morning,” he said.
“At 150 nautical miles out, my father caught a tuna, cleaned the tuna, and as he took a bucket to wash away the blood left behind, my father fell overboard. My mother, due to the shock, did not know how to react. On top of that, the boat was one they were not very familiar with — she did not know how to respond, and within 30 seconds my father had disappeared,” he added.
“After that, my mother took down the exact, precise coordinates of the spot where my father fell and tried to send out an SOS via radio. The radio appears to have either malfunctioned or the correct protocol was not followed,” he stressed.
“My mother is not crazy”
“The boat ran out of fuel because my mother knew nothing about mechanics — she did not know how to turn off the engine or anything else. She managed to raise one of the sails and lowered the other about halfway to slow the vessel down as much as possible.
She wrote down the coordinates where my father fell, which were immediately reported to the Maritime Rescue Service. The only thing my mother wrote were my father’s coordinates. Full stop — there is nothing else written. My mother did not keep a diary, my mother did not write how she felt. My mother is not crazy, she is not taking any medication,” he said. He went on to describe his father as a seasoned sailor: “My father has been sailing for over 35 years. He was an extraordinarily experienced man. My mother, not so much.”
