MMEA director-general Admiral (Maritime) Zulkifli Abu Bakar said the search was called off at 8.30pm yesterday upon a request from the US Navy Seventh Fleet Public Affairs Office, that said the US Navy wanted to focus on a search in the flooded compartments of the destroyer USS John S McCain.

The destroyer had collided with a merchant vessel, Alnic MC, in Ramunia Bay waters, off Kota Tinggi, at 5.40am on Monday. It reported five crew injured and 10 unaccounted for.

“The US Navy reported the recovery of the body of a crew in the hold of the vessel,” Zulkifli said in a statement.

He said the sea search would be resumed if the search for the missing crew within the vessel did not yield results.

The Malaysian search team, comprising 14 assets and over 500 personnel from the MMEA, Royal Malaysian Navy, Marine Police, Marine Department and Army, carried out the search for over 83 hours, covering a search area of 4,926 sq km in eastern Johor waters.