{"id":570090,"date":"2026-02-06T08:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T08:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/570090\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T08:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T08:32:12","slug":"major-search-underway-for-missing-man-after-empty-boat-found-off-gold-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/570090\/","title":{"rendered":"Major search underway for missing man after empty boat found off Gold Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major cross-border search is underway for a missing man after an unoccupied boat was found off the Gold Coast early on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Police said they were called about 7pm on Thursday when a black half-cabin pleasure craft the 44-year-old Hollywell man was believed to have been on, failed to return to Runaway Bay Marina.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police were called on Thursday night after the boat failed to return to Runaway Bay Marina. (ABC News: Mark Rigby)<\/p>\n

Water police searched the surrounding areas and seaways and tried to make contact with the boat over the radio.<\/p>\n

It was found about 2am on Friday in waters 25 nautical miles \u2014 about 50 kilometres \u2014 south-east of the Gold Coast Seaway with no-one on board.<\/p>\n

Senior Sergeant Shannon Gray said the boat was in good condition and there was no apparent reason the man was not onboard.<\/p>\n

“The circumstances as to what happened in the boat are still unknown, and we may never know exactly what happened,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our priority at the moment is to continue searching for the man, and we’ll continue into the night, and we’ll continue again tomorrow morning.”<\/p>\n

Police are calling for anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A rescue plane flew up from Essendon late on Thursday night. (Supplied: FlightAware)<\/p>\n

Senior Sergeant Gray said the missing man was an experienced game fisherman with “a lot of marine experience”.<\/p>\n

“The search area is extremely large, and at this point in time is starting to head down towards the Byron Bay area,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It could be the case that he’s wearing a life jacket \u2014 we’re unsure \u2014 but that’s the best case scenario, and that will give him a better chance (of survival) if he’s in the water with that life jacket on.”<\/p>\n

An Australian Maritime Safety Authority rescue plane flew from Essendon, in Melbourne, to the Gold Coast on Thursday night as part of the search.<\/p>\n

It circled over waters off the coast for several hours before landing at Gold Coast Airport about 5am.<\/p>\n

Marine Rescue Point Danger said its volunteers were assisting police in a multi-agency search for the man, with a crew setting off at 8:30am on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Marine Rescue Point Danger volunteers have helped with a multi-agency search. (Supplied: Marine Rescue Point Danger)<\/p>\n

Inspector John Murray said conditions were calm offshore with light winds.<\/p>\n

“Marine Rescue NSW will continue assisting the search until instructed otherwise,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Overnight, volunteer radio operators at Marine Rescue Port Macquarie made several attempts to contact the vessel in question.<\/p>\n

“Today, radio operators from the Point Danger unit are assisting with communications.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major cross-border search is underway for a missing man after an unoccupied boat was found off the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":570091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,7908,22236,2089,6575,5811,50,136605,7207,38019,4747,5812],"class_list":["post-570090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-boat","tag-gold-coast","tag-man","tag-marine","tag-missing","tag-news","tag-point-danger","tag-police","tag-police-search","tag-rescue","tag-search"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116022761627303112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}