No sign of crew was seen when a missing British yacht was spotted by a US Navy helicopter crew. According to Reuters, the missing British yacht has been missing since last week. Upon its discovery by the US Navy helicopter, curiously, no sign of crew members were found on board.

Because of the outcome of having no sign of crew members on the British yacht, officials said they are now leaving a midnight deadline for suspending searches for the men unchanged. Otago Daily Times reports that all of the four crew members, now missing, are experienced sailors. They reportedly encountered problems on sea during their return to Britain from a sailing event in Antigua in the Caribbean.

They reported that the Cheeki Rafiki, the name of their vessel, was taking on water. This forced them to change course for the Azores. The US Coast Guard said in a statement on Friday (local time), a Navy search crew reportedly found the overturned vessel with no sign of crew members. It was located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) off the Massachusetts coast.

According to the Associated Press, a Navy swimmer reached the 40-foot (12-meter) yacht and eventually found its cabin flooded and windows shattered. The statement said that the swimmer knocked on the hull but heard no response, hence suspecting that there were no sign of crew members.

Lieutenant Joe Klinker, a spokesman for the Coast Guard's 1st District which oversees Massachusetts waters said, "The ability to locate that overturned hull, but still not be able to find a life raft is indicative of how unlikely it is that the life raft is still out there." Klinker added that despite there were no sign of crew members in the British yacht, the search would be called off by midnight Friday if there were no further developments to indicate the missing sailors might still be found alive.

The AP reports that the US authorities had originally abandoned a search for the lost crew after two days because of perfidious conditions. However, they eventually continued the search for the crew on Tuesday. The continued search reportedly came after a request from the British government and a public petition signed by over 200,000 people.

No sign of crew from the former missing British yacht may involve the possibility of the men being lost at sea. Many are hoping however that the men may still be found and at the soonest possible time. The Cheeki Rafiki is a 40-foot which included 22-year-old captain Andrew Bridge and crew members James Male, 23, Steve Warren, 52, and Paul Goslin, 56.