Four warships from three countries are searching the Arabian Sea for a sailor declared missing from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
“A sailor was reported missing on board the Lincoln, prompting the command to hold a man overboard (response) which verified the sailor as missing,” said Lt. Samuel Boyle, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.
"A search of the ship did not turn up the sailor, prompting the at sea search. "
Lincoln and two of its escorts — the guided-missile cruiser Leyte Gulf and the Spanish guided-missile frigate Méndez Núñez — were continuing the hunt for the sailor, according to a prepared statement provided by the U.S. 5th Fleet to Navy Times.
The Navy has marked the unidentified sailor’s status as “Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown" while the search continues.
Update: This story has been amended to correct a mistake by U.S. 5th Fleet. Pakistan’s guided-missile frigate Aslat offered to help assist in the rescue efforts but it did not, in fact, join the search for the sailor.
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Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
