Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) has launched a military drone for the first time to support rescue operations being conducted to locate a fishing boat that set sail from Meemu atoll Maduvvari and went missing with three people on board.
Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) has launched a military drone for the first time to support rescue operations being conducted to locate a fishing boat that set sail from Meemu atoll Maduvvari and went missing with three people on board.
This is the first rescue operation where MNDF is utilizing the three drones that were brought to the country last month.
According to MNDF, the diving boat known as "Farihi 2" set sail outside of Raiymandhoo in Meemu Atoll for fishing and was reported missing at 23:30hrs on Friday night. An unmanned aerial vehicle or "UAV" has now been deployed in the region to aid rescue efforts.
Maldives Police Service (MPS) received a report of two men who had boarded the fishing vessel and gone missing at around 22:00hrs on Friday night. However, MNDF later revealed that three Maldivian men had been aboard the vessel at the time of its disappearance.
The men on the boat are reported to have travelled from Kaafu atoll Maafushi to Maduvvari to go fishing on a boat from Maduvvari.
MNDF has revealed they have already searched an area of 440 nautical miles by sea and air in search of the missing vessel.
Anyone with knowledge on the whereabouts of the boat and the three missing person on board are asked to contact the Coast Guard or share the information with Police on their emergency hotline 119.
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