Three people were killed and nearly two dozen others were hospitalised after a boat capsized Sunday just off the San Diego coast. Photo / KGTV
Three people were killed and nearly two dozen others were hospitalised after a boat capsized Sunday just off the San Diego coast. Photo / KGTV
Three people were killed and more than two dozen others were hospitalised on Sunday (US time) after a boat capsized and broke apart in rough water just off the San Diego coast during a suspected human smuggling operation, authorities said.
Lifeguards, the US Coast Guard and other agencies responded around 10am following reports of an overturned vessel in the surf near the rocky peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Seven people were pulled from the waves, including three who drowned, said San Diego Lifeguard Services Lt. Rick Romero. One person was rescued from a cliff and 22 others managed to make it to shore on their own, he said.
Three people were killed and nearly two dozen others were hospitalised after a boat capsized Sunday just off the San Diego coast. Photo / KGTV
"Once we arrived on scene, the boat had basically been broken apart," Romero said. "Conditions were pretty rough: 5 to 6 feet of surf, windy, cold."
A total of 27 people were transported to hospitals with "a wide variety of injuries" including hypothermia, Romero said. Most of the victims were able to walk themselves to ambulances, he said.
Officials said the group was overcrowded on a 12m cabin cruiser that is larger than the typical open-top wooden panga-style boats often used by smugglers to bring people illegally into the US from Mexico.
"Every indication from our perspective was this was a smuggling vessel. We haven't confirmed their nationality," said Jeff Stephenson, a supervising agent with US Border Patrol.
Agents were at hospitals preparing to interview survivors, including the boat's captain who Stephenson described as a "suspected smuggler." Smugglers typically face federal charges.
San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Jose Ysea said when he arrived on scene near the Cabrillo National Monument there was a "large debris field" of splintered wood and other items in the choppy waters.
Wreckage and debris from a capsized boat washes ashore at Cabrillo National Monument. Photo / AP
A US Coast Guard helicopter flies over boats searching the area where a boat capsized just off the San Diego coast. Photo / AP
"In that area of Point Loma it's very rocky. It's likely the waves just kept pounding the boat, breaking it apart," he said.
There were life preservers on board, but it wasn't known how many or whether any passengers were wearing them, officials said.
Among the rescuers was an unnamed Navy sailor who was in the area with his family and jumped in the water to assist someone in an effort described by Romero as a "huge help".
Officials believed everyone on board was accounted for right away, but crews in boats and aircraft continued to search the area for several hours for other possible survivors, Ysea said.
Items from a boat sit on the shoreline at Cabrillo National Monument near where it capsized just off the San Diego coast. Photo / AP
San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Rick Romero speaks at a news conference held after a boat capsized just off the San Diego coast. Photo / AP
On Thursday, border officials intercepted a panga-type vessel traveling without navigation lights 18km off the coast of Point Loma with 21 people on board. The crew took all 15 men and six women into custody. Agents determined all were Mexican citizens with no legal status to enter the US, according to a statement released by Customs and Border Protection. Two of the people on the boat, the suspected smugglers, will face charges, it said.
Border Patrol on Friday said law enforcement officials would be ramping up operations to disrupt maritime smuggling off the coast of San Diego this weekend.
As warmer weather comes to San Diego, there is a misperception that it will make illegal crossings safer or easier, the agency said in a statement.
