Indo-Australian Still Missing As Family Arrives From Australia
Family of missing Australian Ravisham Pillay, 27, arrived in Vancouver on Wednesday and headed Tofino, where the whale watching tragedy occurred.
TOFINO – The family of missing Indo-Australian Ravisham Pillay arrived in Vancouver this morning, enroute from Sydney to Tofino, as an RCMP dive team continued to search the waters of Vancouver Island for the missing tourist.
Pillay, 27, has not been seen since the whale-watching vessel MV Leviathan II capsized on Sunday with 27 passengers and crew onboard, reported CBC news.
Five British citizens died in the tragedy, while 21 people were plucked from the water by locals who responded to flares and radio calls.
Despite two days of searching, Pillay has not been found, and RCMP divers are now conducting what is presumed to be a search for his body at the site on the west coast of Vargas Island in Clayoquot Sound.
Five British nationals perished in the sinking of the Leviathan II, and some of their mourning family members arrived in Tofino on Wednesday. Pillay’s girlfriend, Danielle Hooker, was among them; her father, Nigel Hooker, also perished in the waves.
Pillay’s mother spoke briefly to the media at Vancouver International Airport south terminal on Wednesday morning, where a large number of family members arrived in the company of Australian consular officials.
She said she did not want to make a statement, but the family would issue one later.
The British Consul General Rupert Potter said Tuesday that several families of the other victims and survivors were also travelling to Tofino from the UK and would likely be arriving today.
Witnesses say Sydney resident Pillay sank below the surface, painting a bleak picture of the odds he will be found alive.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) told CTV News their investigative crew was being pulled out of Tofino on Thursday. E
lectronics were extracted from the capsized boat over the last several days, and have been sent to Ottawa for examination.
Divers tried twice Wednesday to scour the bottom of the ocean near where the Leviathan II went down on Sunday after being hit by what has been described as a large wave — but poor weather forced suspension of the search.
TSB says the next step is the refloating of the boat, and taking it to a secure location for examination, cautioning that the process could take some time.
Officers braved rough seas in order to search the fast-moving shallow ocean, Preston said.
“As we started to get closer and closer, we were getting beaten in the boat trying to make it through the waves,” he said. “A lot of times the boat would come slamming down.”
The fast-moving water under the surface meant his divers had to grab onto whatever they could to stay in place. Preston said he has concerns about the safety of his divers in conditions like that. He pledged to keep looking, but if Pillay can’t be found in their grid search they will not continue.
“If we locate him, that’s the end goal. If I clear the area they all say he’s in, and he’s not there, I’ll be ending the dive,” he said.
