2 fishermen die in Mass. boat sinking

BOSTON – At least two crew members of a fishing boat died and a third was missing after their vessel rolled over and sank 27 miles south of Chatham late Saturday night.

The New Bedford-based Atlanta foundered and sank at about 10 p.m., when the U.S. Coast Guard picked up the boat’s emergency beacon, according to Linda O’Brien, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

The Coast Guard notified other boats in the area. The Ocean Reign spotted a flare and followed it to a life raft with four live crew members aboard. A fifth crew member, Kenneth Toolis, had died, O’Brien said.

O’Brien said the four survivors were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford. They were in stable condition Sunday, she said.

Two other crew members, Skipper Francisco Pereira and Steve Vintor, could not immediately be found. Then, on Sunday afternoon, another fishing boat, the Hammerhead, came across a body floating in the ocean.

It was not immediately apparent which of the missing men it was, O’Brien said.

On Sunday evening, the Coast Guard suspended its search for the other missing man, saying it wouldn’t resume unless there was new information. Three boats and two aircrafts searched a 14-square-mile area about 29 miles southeast of Chatham on Saturday night and Sunday, Lt. Commander Bill Bellatty said.

“We have combed the search area and really saturated it,” he said. “If the person we’re looking for was there, we would have found him.”

The accident remained under investigation Sunday, he said.