ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

The search continued on Thursday (May 22) for four British sailors on board a yacht that went missing in the waters of the Atlantic last week.

But Captain Anthony Popiel of the U.S. Coast guard says operations will be suspended by Friday (May 23) at midnight (EST), if search crews fail to make headway in their search mission.

"If by midnight tomorrow, there are no further developments to indicate search efforts would locate the crew alive, we will suspect the search. Our focus right now, however, remains with this very active, and very dynamic search. We will always put forth utmost efforts to find and rescue those in peril at sea. It is only after deepest consideration that we suspend active search efforts," Popiel, the Chief of Response for the Fist Coast Guard District, told reporters.

Earlier, crew members of a volunteer search vessel reported seeing debris in the search area, but the U.S. Coast Guard said that debris did no