NATIONAL NEWS - An extensive sea, air and shoreline search is underway for missing kite-boarder Graham Howes (38), who failed to return from a session off Eden on the Bay in Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, yesterday.
The Witness reports that National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon says the alarm was raised just before 20:00, when Howes’ family reported that he had not returned as expected from an afternoon kiteboarding session.
He was last seen at around 13:00, kiteboarding offshore on a blue and black board with a white kite sail marked with red writing. He was wearing a black wetsuit.
“Despite a large-scale co-ordinated search, Graham remains missing,” says Lambinon.
NSRI Melkbosstrand launched the rescue craft Rotary’s Gift, while shoreline patrols were carried out in the area.
NSRI Table Bay deployed DHL Deliverer and Spirit of Day, and NSRI Yzerfontein launched Rotary Onwards and dispatched a quad bike for shoreline searches.
The Western Cape Government Health EMS Metro Rescue drone unit conducted aerial infrared sweeps.
Police have opened a formal investigation, and multiple agencies, including the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Transnet National Ports Authority, Police Sea Borderline Control, Water Policing and Diving Services, and the City of Cape Town Law Enforcement, are assisting.
Family and friends, the Blouberg and Melkbosstrand coast watchers and neighbourhood watch groups, including the kite-boarding community, are assisting. Environmental officers at Robben Island were placed on alert.
According to Lambinon, Telkom Maritime Radio Services has broadcast an all-ships alert, and search grids, calculated on weather and current conditions, extend from Eden on the Bay towards Robben Island, Bokpunt, Yzerfontein and Dassen Island.
Camera footage obtained from local security confirmed sightings of Howes offshore of Eden on the Bay shortly after 13:00 yesterday.
Lambinon appealed to the public and the maritime community along the West Coast to remain vigilant.
“We are appealing to the local community and the fishing, sailing, private and commercial maritime community, in the area between Blouberg Beach and North West along the West Coast towards Dassen Islands and beyond to keep a sharp lookout,” he says.
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