Accident on the Baltic Sea: Man overboard: fatal accident in the Kadet Channel

The body of a sailor has washed ashore on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn. The 69-year-old from Bremerhaven had gone overboard in the Kadet channel of his yacht on Tuesday last week. A large-scale search operation was cancelled without result.

On the way from Heiligenhafen to Barhöft, the man fell from the eleven-metre-long "Avanti" at around 12.45 p.m. for reasons as yet unexplained. At the time of the accident, there were waves of up to two metres in the sea area.

The wife, who remained on board, immediately alerted the rescuers. She stated that her husband was wearing sailing gear but not a lifejacket.

The corvette "Magdeburg" coordinated the immediate search on site, in which eight ships took part, including the rescue cruisers "Vormann Jantzen" and "Arkona" from the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service. Aircraft were also used in the search. But the chances of survival in the 16-degree water were slim from the start. After several hours, the search was called off.

In the meantime, the wife had been taken over by the fishery protection boat "Seeadler", while two men from the crews who had rushed to help brought the yacht to Warnemünde.

As the waterway police have now announced, an angler found the body of the sailor on Fehmarn. The criminal investigation department in Oldenburg is now investigating the circumstances of the accident.