BOSTON (AP) — The search for the four-member crew of a Maine fishing boat that sank off Massachusetts continued Tuesday, the Coast Guard said. 

A Coast Guard cutter that remained on the scene overnight was joined Tuesday morning by a fixed-wing aircraft, Petty Officer Amanda Myrick said.

The 82-foot (25-meter) Emmy Rose, based in Portland, Maine, went down about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, around 1:30 a.m. Monday. It was heading for Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The crew did not make any sort of mayday or distress call, and the Coast Guard was alerted when the vessel's emergency beacon made contact with the water and sent out its signal, the Coast Guard has said.

The commercial fishing vessel's owner reported that the Emmy Rose's satellite phone went unanswered, and the first Coast Guard crews on the scene discovered debris and an empty life raft.

The search was hampered Monday by 6- to 8-foot (2- to 2.5-meter) seas and 35 mph (55 kph) winds, but weather conditions had improved Tuesday, Myrick said. About 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) of ocean have been searched, the Coast Guard said in a tweet Tuesday.

The boat's owner, Rink Varian, told the Bangor Daily News that the crew was experienced.

“This is a horrific accident,” he said.

The Emmy Rose was part of the Sustainable Harvest Sector fishing cooperative.

“I am holding out hope that the Coast Guard will be able to find these people,” cooperative manager Hank Soul told The Boston Globe.