Search Continues for Missing Mariner

The United States Coast Guard continues its search for a missing man after watchstanders at Sector Honolulu Command Center received a mayday call at 8:03 a.m. Thursday. A man reported flooding aboard his vessel and provided a GPS location about 46 miles west of Kailua-Kona. Communications were then lost.

Among the search team is a Navy P-3 Orion airplane, Coast Guard HC-130, and a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and crew.

Covering an area of 7,798 square miles, crews combined have conducted more than 50 sorties. During the course of the Coast Guard HC-130 flight, crews deployed a self-locating datum marker buoy to gather critical information for the development of search areas.

Using the Search and Rescue Optimal Planning System, known to watchstanders as the software system SAROPS, crews were able to calculate search areas in the complex currents of the Hawaiian Islands. The software system uses simulated particles generated by used in a graphical interface. Those particles are influenced by environmental data to provide information on search object drift. With information on point of origin and local currents, the software is able to calculate the most likely area to find a person in the water.

Ron Ingrahm was identified Friday as the mariner aboard the 25-foot sailing vessel Malia. He is believed to be the only individual aboard the boat that departed Kaunakakai Harbor, Molokai and was sailing towards Manele Bay, Lanai.

The Coast Guard Sector of Honolulu Command Center received a call Friday by a friend of Ingrahm who said Tuesday was the last time the two had spoken.