10 hours ago
Mystery as British woman, 39, disappears after hiring boat on Spanish paradise island as police launch major search operation
Spanish police and coastguards have launched a major search operation for a British woman who vanished after hiring a boat on the paradise island of Formentera.
The alarm was raised on Wednesday evening when she failed to return a 15-foot cream-coloured motor boat she had hired earlier in the day.
The 39-year-old woman has been named locally as Mary Gavin.
A Spanish Coastguard search and rescue helicopter took part in an operation launched yesterday with two coastguard vessels as the Civil Guard combed the land.
The air, land and sea operation was expected to continue from first light today, although officials could not be reached early this morning for comment.
The company the missing Brit hired the boat from has been named locally as Helix Charter Formentera.
The vessel she is said to have left Formentera port La Salina in on Wednesday afternoon 'for a quick boat ride'.
She disappeared at around 6.30pm on Wednesday and has not been heard from since.
Ms Gavin was last seen on a cream-coloured Quicksilver 475 Axess with a Mercury outboard motor, just over 4.5metres in length.
The rental firm is understood to have participated in yesterday's search.
Messages have been sent to other mariners in the area with descriptions of the vessel police and coastguards are hunting asking them to be on the lookout.
Two vessels were sent out on Thursday to search the area.
One was mobilised from its base in Ibiza with the other instructed to comb the coastline off Formentera, the smallest of the inhabited Balearic Islands.
It was not immediately clear this morning if the missing woman lives in Spain or was holidaying in the Balearic Islands.
SLocal press are reporting 'all possibilities' are being considered because her plans when she hired the boat were 'a complete unknown.'
