A FISHERMAN who fell overboard a Belgian fishing trawler off the North Devon coast on Saturday evening is still missing. Crew on the trawler reported a man overboard at around 6pm on Saturday February 4. RNLI lifeboat crews from Appledore and Padstow, along with Chivenor's 22 Squadron Search and Rescue helicopter were tasked to search for the man in freezing, rainy conditions. The accident happened around 12 miles west-south-west of Hartland Point. The RAF Sea King helicopter, piloted by Captain John Rowe, were in the air from 6.10pm, but returned to the Chivenor base at around 8.45pm. Cpt Rowe described the conditions as very poor with heavy rain, and the flight were told to stand down by Swansea Coastguard after nearly three hours in the air. The volunteer lifeboat crews were also told to stand down, and neither were called to carry on searching on Sunday morning. Dyfed Powys Police in West Wales are in charge of the search, but no one was available to officially comment on the status of the search on Sunday. Tamsin Thomas from the RNLI, speaking on Sunday morning said: "We believe it was a Belgian fishing boat, and as far as I know no one is out searching for him this morning." A statement from the RNLI said: "The emergency pagers sounded for the crew volunteers at Appledore at 6.20pm when they launched onboard the Tamar class all-weather lifeboat Mollie Hunt. The crew from Padstow RNLI had already launched onboard their Tamar class lifeboat Spirit of Padstow. Both were immediately involved in the search for the missing man, a search that also involved other vessels in the area and a search and rescue helicopter from RMB Chivenor. Conditions worsened through the evening as the two lifeboats followed co-ordinated search patterns as they attempted to trace the fishing boat crew member. After more than three hours at sea searching both RNLI lifeboat crews were stood down with no-one having been found." Related: Major sea search off North Devon coast fails to find missing fisherman