The Tribune

THE Royal Bahamas Defence Force said it has spent 100 hours searching for a man missing at sea after he fell off a jet ski during a collision with a boat on July 11.

In a statement, the RBDF said up until yesterday, it had been “actively engaged” in the search for Drew Rigby.

However, it said that due to weather conditions, and at night, the search was temporarily suspended at times for the safety of those overboard.

The agency added that the success of any search and rescue (SAR) mission relies on timing and an exhaustive search.

“Therefore, once alerted, the RBDF responded swiftly and engaged all of her available resources to ensure the success of this particular SAR mission,” the agency said yesterday. “In addition to the RBDF resources, the RBPF, BASRA and its network of civilian volunteers, and a number of civilian vessels provided by the family were coordinated in the effort.”

These resources included three Harbour Patrol Unit small boat assets, one RBDF aircraft, RBDF military divers, RBDF aerial and submarine drones, a RBPF small boat, BASRA and a vast network of volunteers and vessels provided by the family, the agency said.

The search area was approximately 10 square nautical miles, which the RBDF said would approximately equate to searching an area from Montagu Beach ramp to the Arawak Cay Port facility, south to the Sports Centre and then east to the Montagu Beach ramp area.

“This area was methodically searched by all available search resources with a constant presence,” the RBDF said. “However, due to the prevailing weather conditions — sea-state, waves and the wind — the search was at times temporarily postponed. This was done particularly at nighttime, to reduce the risk of injury to person(s) overboard, until the advantage of daylight is available, and favourable weather conditions allow the search to continue.”

The RBDF said it met with the missing man’s family on Thursday to update them on the progress of the search.

At the time of the meeting, the RBDF said it was actively engaged for 85 hours, and since the meeting, continued the search for an additional 15 hours, for a cumulative search time of 100 hours.

The RBDF said the boating community can take actions to increase the probability of a safe rescue, such as having safety equipment; wearing life jackets; and timely and accurate reporting of an incident.

“While conducting a successful SAR mission relies on timing and an exhaustive search, there are actions which the boating public can take that will increase the probability of a safe rescue,” the RBDF noted.

“They are ensuring that vessels have appropriate safety equipment such as GPS for identifying location, communication equipment for timely and accurate reporting of any incident, and life jackets that each person on a craft must adorn. In addition to these actions, boaters must engage in responsible boating practice. The combination of safety equipment, timely and accurate reporting of the incident, responsible boating practices, and the efforts of all assets engaged in the search effort would greatly improve the success rate of a SAR mission.”

Sometime after 7pm on July 11, police officers received a report that an accident had occurred in the area off Rose Island involving a 26 ft boat and a jet ski. Initial investigations revealed that six people were in the boat while two people were on the jet ski when they collided.

The male driver of the jet ski received leg injuries while his male passenger, Mr Rigby, was ejected into the ocean. The male jet ski driver was recovered from the water, however Mr Rigby, who was not wearing a life jacket according to authorities, is still missing.