A MAJOR search operation is due to resume this morning in west Cork for a 40-year-old man and his 13-year-old son, missing since Sunday afternoon and feared drowned after they failed to return from a fishing trip.
Piotr Latek, a Polish man living in Kenmare, had told friends that he was going fishing with his son Matthias, who was on holidays from Poland, and that they would go to Castletownbere after fishing initially near Kenmare.
Mr Latek had worked at the Breadcrumb Bakery in Kenmare for the past two years. The owner of the bakery, Manuela Goeb, said he had been due to start work at 9pm on Sunday night but when he didn’t show up, it was assumed he had swopped his shift with a colleague.
According to Ms Goeb, it was only when Mr Latek failed to turn up at Shannon airport on Monday to collect his father, who was flying in from Poland for a holiday, that people became concerned.
Ms Goeb reported Mr Latek missing to Kenmare gardaí at about 9.30am yesterday morning and they in turn contacted officers in Bantry and Castletownbere Garda stations.
Supt Liam Horgan of Bantry said gardaí from Castletownbere met up with some of Mr Latek’s friends and they found his black Nissan Micra parked and locked at Coominches about a half a mile from Cod’s Head between Allihies and Eyries.
Gardaí accompanied by Mr Latek’s friends began searching the rocky rugged shoreline at Cod’s Head where they spotted a fishing rod in the water and another on some rocks and both were identified as belonging to the missing man.
Supt Horgan said it is believed the man and his son may have been caught by a strong wave while fishing on the shoreline and that they were washed into the sea sometime on Sunday afternoon when weather conditions were windy with strong gusts and high seas.
Gardaí notified Valentia Coast Guard after finding the fishing gear and a major search was launched from north of Dursey Island back up the coastline of the Beara Peninsula around Cod’s Head and up towards Eyries.
John Falvey of Valentia Coast Guard told The Irish Times that the Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter from Waterford was carrying out sweeps of the sea off Cod’s Head while Castletownbere Lifeboat was also involved in the search.
Castletownbere Coast Guard’s inshore boat also joined in the search as did the Derrynane Community Rescue inshore boat.
“If they did enter the water, then we wouldn’t be holding out much hope for them at this stage as two to three hours would be the most anyone would last in the sea,” said Mr Falvey, adding that search conditions yesterday were fair with force four winds and one-metre swells. According to Ms Goeb, Mr Latek had been looking forward to his son coming on holiday and the boy had just arrived less than two weeks ago from Poland where he lives with his mother who had stayed in Poland to study. She had also come to Kenmare regularly on holiday.
“It’s just a very sad story,” said Ms Goeb, adding that Matthias was the couple’s only child while Mr Latek himself was also an only child and that his father was currently being comforted by members of the Polish community in Kenmare.
