Missing 6 were ‘like family’

HOPES of finding six mates alive after their fishing trawler sank on Monday night were dashed yesterday, even as the search continued.

Ben Leahy, 45, Eli Tonks, 33, Adam Bidner, 33, Zach Feeney, 28, Adam Hoffman, 30, and Chris Sammut, 34, had worked together for years, gathering sea cucumbers off the Queensland coast.

Survivor Ruben McDornan’s wife Sammy tearfully described the missing six men as “like family” on Wednesday as she arrived in Gladstone to reunite with her husband.

He miraculously survived after a passing catamaran found him floating in a bay after 12 hours in the water, with his wife describing him as “sore but okay”.

“We’re so grateful that he (Ruben) is alive,” she said.

“But our thoughts are with the boys missing at the moment because they’re all like family, so we just need everybody to keep positive for them.

“We’re really thankful to the people that rescued Ruben and to all the people out there searching for the boys. And just for everybody’s support.”

Friends described the men – all fit and experienced divers – as a close-knit crew.

They were known to love spending weekends together fishing and drinking beer.

Distraught relatives emerged from a police briefing in Gladstone late on Wednesday in tears as the chances of survival plummeted.

Experts had told police they had until the end of searching that day to find the men alive if they were in the water unsupported. The deadline passed with only debris from the capsized trawler found.

Six vessels, six helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft, private vessels and an amphibious vehicle were searching around Bustard Bay, near Seventeen Seventy, where the trawler Dianne is believed to have sunk.