Weather impedes rescue of stricken ship near Falklands

Poor weather is hampering an operation to rescue the crew of a fishing vessel who were forced to abandon ship about 200 nautical miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands, leaving 27 people stranded in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The crew of the Argos Georgia was forced to flee the vessel shortly after 16:00 local time on Monday, the government of the Falkland Islands - a UK overseas territory - said.

Officials said the fishing vessel requested assistance after an incident lead to uncontrolled flooding onboard. They boarded life rafts shortly after.

But an attempt to rescue the crew using a military helicopter was prevented by "extremely challenging weather conditions".

Officials said the weather continues to rule out use of the helicopter and it will review when it can make another attempt to rescue the crew.

Ten crew members, including the ship's captain, were from Spain, an official in north-west region of Galicia told the EFE news agency.

The Argos Georgia had left Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands on Sunday night heading for fishing grounds, according to ship tracking website Marine Traffic.

A British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) Atlas aircraft was able to track and report the position of the life rafts.

The aircraft and an additional Voyager plane, have maintained a watch on the rafts overnight, officials in the Falkland Islands said in a statement.

The patrol vessel (FPV) Lilibet and two fishing vessels have also made their way to the location, with the first ship arriving on scene and starting search operations.

The BFSAI search and rescue helicopter, which attempted to recover the crew, had to return to Stanley Airport to re-fuel. The weather subsequently worsened and the helicopter search operation was suspended.

The government said it hopes it can resume operations as soon as possible.

Argos Froyanes, the fishing company which owns the longliner 2018-built vessel, declined to comment when asked by BBC News about their crew and the search operation.