Police scale back search for missing man following Sydney boat crash

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Police have scaled back the search for a prominent Sydney businessman who's been missing since a boat crash at Watsons Bay. The tech entrepreneur Andrew Findlay is presumed to have drowned in Sydney harbour.

Transcript

00:00 Three days into the search for missing father Andrew Finlay, all hope of finding him alive

00:07 has been lost.

00:08 The time frame for survival for anyone in the water, taking into account the temperatures

00:13 at the moment in July have lapsed.

00:17 The 51-year-old tech entrepreneur was out fishing with his long-time friend, top Sydney

00:22 art dealer Tim Klingender on Thursday morning, when their boat suddenly crashed into rocks

00:27 in high seas and capsized, throwing both men into the water.

00:32 Mr Klingender's body was found shortly after, while Mr Finlay has not been found.

00:38 Police say their deaths could have been prevented.

00:41 Life jackets save lives.

00:43 Both men failed to have a life jacket on.

00:46 I'm sorry to say that those lives are lost.

00:49 The two Sydney men were both prominent figures in their fields.

00:53 Among those paying tribute to Mr Klingender today was Australian icon Magda Zabanski,

00:59 who tweeted that she greatly admired his incredible work promoting Indigenous art and offered

01:04 her deepest condolences to his friends and family.

01:08 Both families are struggling to comprehend their loss.

01:12 They're in shock.

01:13 A lot of shock, a lot of sadness because they understand that this is an avoidable accident.

01:18 Police had five marine search boats scaling the water yesterday.

01:22 Today they've been forced to scale it back to three vessels as high seas hampered their

01:27 efforts.

01:28 We will continue tomorrow or until marine air command asks us to cease looking, but

01:34 yeah, we'll go for a few days.

01:37 Police divers will resume their recovery mission when conditions improve.

01:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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