HALIFAX – It’s been exactly one month since the Miss Ally, and her five crew, were lost at sea.
With all five men now laid to rest, families of the missing men were recently notified that the investigation into the sinking of the boat is now over.
“A boat capsized, five people died. there’s, there’s no other way to call it other then an accident” said Pierre Murray, spokesman for Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
TSB investigates accidents to find out exactly what happened, and if there is anything that can be done to prevent similar tragedies.
In the case of the Miss Ally, Murray says nothing could have prevented it. “Although the investigation has been going on for a month, it’s not going to go any further, we’re not going to write a report that at the end of the day is just a sad story, a tragic story, but that doesn’t help the fishing community as a whole,” he said.
The crew was aware there was a storm coming, and had planned to head back to shore.
There were no major deficiences with the boat itself. “The lights were not working. a problem with the electric, so they had to wait to the following morning to retrieve, to find their fishing gear and retrieve it and steam back, so that delay caused the storm to be on them before they had time to get in,” Murray said.
Officals have determined that a powerful wave caused the vessel to capsize. “We’re talking about waves of between 30 and 50 feet high, so take about an apartment building, a four story apartment building, that’s the kind of wave that was there,” he said.
The Miss Ally has never been retrieved. It’s last location showed it had drifted north towards Halifax.
It’s believed the wreck of the vessel will continue to drift until it runs aground, likely near Sable Island or sinks.
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