Lough Neagh Body Recovered

The tragic victim of last night's boating accident on Lough Neagh has this afternoon been named.

He was Martin Wylie, a father-of-two from Co Tyrone who is believed to have lived and worked on the lough all his life. He fell as the boat returned to a quay near Ardboe.

One theory is that he may have slipped on ice at the stern of the boat during a bitterly cold night as he prepared to help tie it up.

His body was recovered earlier today following an unsuccessful hunt on Lough Neagh last night.

The search then resumed this morning, but the coastguard were already suggesting it was unlikely he would be found alive given water temperatures and freezing conditions.

The man was travelling on a cabin cruiser, crewed by two others, when he went missing. It is believed the boat was near to Kells Point, at around 9pm, when the alarm was raised.

Crew members had tried to throw lifebelts to the man, but the attempts failed.

A police helicopter (pictured) and rescue boats were deployed, but they failed to find the man in the four degrees Celsius water.

The Kinnego Coastguard Team along with lifeboat shore crews from Ardboe also carried out shoreline searches last night and fire crews from Cookstown provided support to the teams.

Searches were suspended at around 11.20pm last night, and then resumed this morning.

Belfast Watch Manager Steve Palmer said more than a mile of water and shoreline were searched using illumination from the police helicopter yesterday.

"Despite the valiant efforts of all concerned we did not manage to find the man who had fallen overboard," he said late last night, concluding: "I'd like to offer the Coastguard's sympathies to the family of the missing man involved in this extremely unfortunate accident."

(PR/JM)