A sailor lost at sea in the Persian Gulf will not be found by the Navy.
The U.S. Navy ended Tuesday its search and rescue efforts to find missing sailor Petty Ofc. Ian McKnight. The sailor is believed to have gone overboard from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz Sunday.
“We are deeply saddened as we call off the search for IT2 Ian McKnight,” the USS Nimitz’s commanding officer, Capt. Max Clark, said in a statement released by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command after the sailor’s next of kin were notified.
The guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and aircraft from the Navy and Air Force conducted the search in the north Persian Gulf, where McKnight went missing.
The Navy said it called off the search on the high seas “after extensive attempts to locate McKnight” that included a thorough search of the ship itself.
The USS Nimitz is the 5,000-sailor lead ship of a carrier strike group deployed to the 5th Fleet, which patrols a region ranging from the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean to the Western Indian Ocean to assure security and the free flow of commerce.
It is rare but not unprecedented for a sailor to be swept from a carrier deck.
The incident remains under investigation.
