Overview
- Witnesses reported the passenger going overboard from Unity Line’s MS Skania around 16:25–16:30, roughly 28–30 kilometers east of Rügen during the Ystad–Świnoujście crossing.
- The captain stopped the ferry and alerted MRCC Bremen, triggering a coordinated operation with DGzRS rescue cruisers Harro Koebke and Berthold Beitz, two helicopters from Denmark and Sweden, and German police and customs vessels.
- Nearby ships, including the counter‑sailing ferry Polonia, joined repeated sweeps of a tightly defined search area based on drift calculations.
- Rescuers suspended the effort around 19:00 with no find, as darkness and near‑4°C water temperatures sharply limited survival chances despite relatively calm seas.
- The missing man is a Polish national, investigators are reviewing ship data and accounts, Unity Line says third‑party involvement is not suspected, and separate reports of possible suicide remain unconfirmed.