capsized boats san diego

At least four people died after a crowded "smuggling vessel" hit a reef and capsized off the coast of San Diego on Sunday morning, officials said.

SAN DIEGO -- At least three people died after a crowded "smuggling vessel" hit a reef and capsized off the coast of San Diego on Sunday morning, officials said.

The incident took place around 9:56 a.m. local time, when a call came in from a commercial vessel that reported there was another boat in trouble near Point Loma leading into San Diego Bay, according to Rick Romero of the San Diego Lifeguard Services.

Blue Whale Capsizes Boat

The initial report said there was just one person aboard the distressed ship. However, rescuers said there were as many as 30 people involved. James Gartland, the lifeguard chief for the city of San Diego, said the vessel hit a reef and broke.

Seven people were in the water, and two had drowned, according to Romero. The remainder of the passengers, including one who was rescued from a cliff, were taken to area hospitals with conditions ranging from "hypothermia and injuries from the vessel breaking, " Romero said.

Weather conditions, which caused the boat to break apart, also hindered the rescue efforts, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. There were seven-foot swells, low clouds and some rain.

At Least 8 Dead After Boats Capsize In Human Smuggling Attempt In San Diego

Divers could not go in the water because the weather was so bad, the source told ABC News. However, crews were still searching for victims as there was not an official record of the number of people who were aboard the boat.

"I would have thought there were four people on that boat, you know there weren't a lot of people, four to six people on that boat, " said witness Michael Jacobson. "And then all of a sudden, bodies just started coming up and jumping off, and it started tipping, tipping quite a bit."

Jeff Stephenson, a Border Patrol agent, told reporters that the boat was a smuggling vessel, and the likely operator was in custody.

At Least 2 Dead After Panga Boat Capsizes Off Imperial Beach

"(Smugglers) don't care about the people they're exploiting, all they care about is profit. To them, these people are just commodities, " Stephenson told reporters.

Sharp Memorial Hospital and Sharp Grossmont Hospital reported receiving eight patients from the incident, with injuries mostly coming from passengers hitting rocks in the ocean, a spokesperson said in a statement. Three of the patients from Sharp Grossmont Hospital are expected to be discharged, while the remaining patients were in stable condition, the hospital said.

A spokesperson for UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest said it also received eight patients, three of whom were trauma patients while the others were sent to the emergency department.

People Detained After Boat Capsizes Off San Diego Beach

On Sunday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement that 29 had reportedly been accounted and four others were dead, but an updated statement Monday said three were dead and of the 29 survivors, five remain in the hospital.

All but two people on the boat were Mexican citizens without legal status in the U.S. The others were a Guatemalan citizen without legal status in the U.S. and a U.S. citizen who was identified as the pilot, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday. Among the 28 in CBP custody were a 15-year-old boy traveling alone and 21 men and six women, ages 18 to 39.Eight people have died after two boats capsized off the coast of California, emergency officials have said, with officials suspecting that the craft were being used by people smugglers.

The caller reported that she was on a panga boat - a small fishing craft powered by an outboard motor and often used by people smugglers - with 15 people which had made it to Black's Beach, just north of the city.

Man Dead, 3 Rescued From Capsized Panga Found In Ocean Beach

"The woman who called stated that the boat that overturned had 15 people on it, but that was just an estimate, " according to Coast Guard petty officer Richard Brahm.

Rescuers set off to the beach after using GPS coordinates to locate the woman's phone and arrived to find two overturned boats there and bodies spread across hundreds of metres of the coast.

Several crews searched the area from the air and in the water but thick fog overnight hampered their efforts. The search continued on Sunday, with a Coast Guard cutter combing the sea and a helicopter crew joining the search.

Dead After Two Boats Capsize In California Near San Diego

Speaking on Sunday morning at a press conference, San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Chief James Gartland said: "This is one of the worst smuggling tragedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in the city of San Diego."

Mr Gartland said that the waters off the beach are deceptive. "That area is very hazardous, even in the daytime. It has a series of sandbars and in-shore rip currents, so you can think that you can land in some sand or get to waist-high, knee-high water and think that you're able to be safe to exit the water but there's long, in-shore holes.

"If you step into those holes, those rip currents will pull you along the shore and back out to sea, " he told reporters.

Dead After 2 Fishing Boats Capsize Near San Diego, Officials Say

Eric Lavergne of the US Border Patrol said this was one of a few hundred migrant smuggling events recorded in his jurisdiction this year.

The beach is jointly owned by the city of San Diego and the state of California. The stretch of sand is also known as Torrey Pines City Beach and Torrey Pines State Beach and is considered one of the most secluded beaches in the area.

Another coast guard Eddie Berrios confirmed eight people died and teams were searching for at least seven more. Pangas are regularly used by people smugglers in the area: San Diego is just miles from the border with Mexico.

San Diego Boat Wreck Kills 3, Shows Risks Of Ocean Smuggling

A statement from the Mexican Consulate in San Diego said: "The Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego laments the maritime tragedy that occurred this morning near La Jolla.

Lokasi:

Berbagi :