THE CANADIAN PRESS

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MARYSTOWN, N.L. - Search and rescue officials decided Thursday to scale back the search for the four-man crew of a French cargo ship that capsized and sank off southern Newfoundland on Tuesday.

The decision came after searchers had completed 119 hours at sea and 28 hours in the air, covering an area of 10,000 square kilometres.

"We feel there's nothing else we can do to locate these crew members," said Mike Bonin, a spokesman for the search and rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax.

"That means we have turned the case over from a search and rescue case to a missing persons case through the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We've exhausted all of our resources and we feel that, at this point in time, we won't be able to find them."

Bonin stressed that the search would continue, but in a less organized way.

"A search is never closed or finished," he said. What we do is send out notices to mariners, notices to shippers and people do keep a vigilant eye out in that vicinity or along the shoreline."

Earlier in the day, Maj. Paul Doucette said the chance of surviving in the frigid water since Tuesday were fading.

Doucette said officials are investigating a report that an RCMP boat that found the capsized ship heard banging from inside the hull.

"We just know there was banging, something from the inside of the ship, but I still can't confirm it," he said.

The 37-metre Cap Blanc from the French islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon sank about 16 kilometres south of Marystown, N.L.

Search and rescue officials have confirmed they waited about 10 hours before starting a full-scale air search after the coast guard repeatedly tried to make radio contact with the vessel.

Officials said they never received any distress signal before the ship capsized in the mouth of Placentia Bay as it headed from Argentia, N.L., to its home port with a load of road salt.

The ship was found capsized early Tuesday. It sank early in the afternoon.