The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for two firefighters missing since Aug. 16 when they sailed out for a fishing trip from Port Canaveral.
The suspension began at sundown Thursday, according to Capt. Mark Vlaun, commander of the Coast Guard Sector in Jacksonville.
The massive search for friends Justin Walker and Brian McCluney, two off-duty firefighters, lasted six full days and covered over 105,000 miles when Coast Guard officials made the decision.
McCluney, a firefighter with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, grew up in Cocoa. Walker, a firefighter in Fairfax County, Virginia, grew up in Vero Beach.
“We have reached a point where our computer modeling and our ability to search a given location are no longer allowing us to search with any reasonable degree of probability of success,” Vlaun said.
He said time and the Gulf Stream current were working against rescuers as they searched an area the size of the state of Colorado.