A major air and sea search was called off yesterday after a 52-year-old man, reported missing from a ferry, was feared to have drowned.
The alarm was raised when the Lagan Viking service, travelling from Heysham, in Lancashire, to Belfast, reported a man missing, suspected overboard, after it docked in Belfast shortly before 6 a.m.
Two army helicopters, lifeboats and a number of other boats and ferries took part in the search of the Irish Sea.
Mr Ian Murdock, watch manager at Belfast coastguard, said: "Even though sea conditions this morning are excellent, we've found nothing. Life expectancy for a healthy man in 10 degrees temperature of water would be approximately a maximum of 3½ hours. That time has long expired."