Search suspended for sunken fishing vessel

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The search for a fishing vessel that sank without warning with 15 crew members aboard has been suspended, the Coast Guard said Thursday.

Efforts to find the 92-foot Arctic Rose and the crew were halted shortly after 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, "well past the best-case survival time," the Coast Guard said in a news release early Thursday.

No civilian vessels were known to be searching, either, Petty Officer Randy Holloway said by telephone from the agency's district office in Juneau.

"The searchers endured 25-foot seas, 42-knot winds and low temperatures," the statement said. "Heavy icing forced the (sister ships) Alaskan Rose and Bering Rose to leave the search area."

The Arctic Rose sank without warning early Monday morning about 775 miles southwest of Anchorage. The body of the skipper, David E. Rundall, 34, was recovered by the crew of the Alaskan Rose. The body of a second crew member was spotted but could not be recovered from the rough seas. Bodies of the other 13 crew members were not spotted.

The first sign of distress was an emergency locator beacon that was triggered automatically. The Coast Guard will assemble a three-member marine board of investigation to try to determine the cause of the sinking, the statement said.