Crews were searching for three people missing from a disabled yacht off Nova Scotia's southwest coast Tuesday after it broke down, leaving one dead, but five others were rescued.
Maj. Paule Poulin of the Halifax search-and-rescue centre said the yacht broke down Monday night and was drifting about 150 kilometres south of Cape Sable Island when crews received an emergency call.
Maj. Poulin said the three missing people were in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic since 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
"Time is of the essence," Maj. Poulin said.
"We're doing everything we can to locate them as soon as possible."
Sub-Lt. Tania Meloni of the search-and-rescue centre said crews were contending with a low ceiling while searching for the missing people. Sub-Lt. Meloni said they were reportedly wearing life-jackets.
An American Falcon aircraft, a Cormorant and a Canadian Coast Guard cutter were searching the area, while a Hercules plane out of 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S., was preparing to join them.
Capt. Bertrand Thibodeau, the pilot of a Hercules involved in the search early Tuesday, said the conditions were some of the harshest he'd seen.
"They were definitely rough conditions because there were a lot of things playing against us," he said.
"Between the low ceilings, the very strong winds, the high sea states, the fact that it's nighttime so we're restricted in what we can see and the icing on the plane ... it was really bad weather."
He said there were five-metre swells and winds blowing up to 90 kilometres per hour.
The aircraft did sweeping searches through a square pattern, finding flotation devices and an empty life-raft bobbing on the ocean surface but no sign of the yacht.
He said the Hercules provided illumination for a Cormorant helicopter after it hoisted the deceased and two survivors aboard sometime after the aircraft arrived on scene at about 3 a.m.
"It definitely would have been a difficult hoist," Capt. Thibodeau said, adding that the vessel was rocking side-to-side and rising in the pounding swells.
Three other people were taken off the yacht by FSL Hamburg, a passing tanker, and were en route to Saint John, N.B.
Maj. Poulin said nine people were on board the yacht. There were no details on their identities but she said early indications were that they are foreign nationals.
The two injured and the body of the dead person were taken to a hospital in Yarmouth, N.S.
Fraser Mooney, a spokesman at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital, said the two injured men arrived by ambulance sometime before 8 a.m. after being flown to the local airport.
He said they were in fair condition, but couldn't release details about their identities or ages.
RCMP Sgt. Tom Murdock said they were investigating the case because it involved a sudden death.