World News
Yacht Carrying American, 2 Britons, Canadian, Filipino Goes Missing in South China Sea
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MANILA – The Philippine coast guard says a yacht carrying two Britons, an American, a Canadian and a Filipino has gone missing while sailing from Hong Kong to the northwestern Philippines at about the time a storm was affecting the region last week.
Philippine coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said Tuesday that a search has been launched by Philippine and Hong Kong authorities for the yacht Europa, which left Hong Kong on Thursday and failed to arrive in Subic Bay northwest of Manila as expected over the weekend.
The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club said an emergency position-indicating radio beacon on the boat was activated Saturday, indicating the vessel was experiencing difficulties.
A Hong Kong aircraft was dispatched and vessels in the area were alerted.
Meanwhile, A 66-year-old American yachtsman living in Phuket died on his boat Tuesday from an apparent heart attack.
Police in Thalang district of resort island were informed of the death at about 3.40pm. The man was pronounced dead at the emergency unit of Thalang Hospital.
A maid reportedly called a Phuket International Hospital ambulance to bring the American from his boat at the Yacht Haven Marina in Mai Khao sub-district of Thalang.
Kochakorn Laroonphan, 31, said the owner of the 25-million-baht yacht told her that he was having chest pains and then fainted.
The woman said that the American lived alone there for some eight years and she worked for him for four years. Officials found neither wounds nor evidence of assault and assumed he died of a heart attack.