A pontoon boat capsized roughly 600 yards from Alcatraz Island on Tuesday afternoon, leaving one person dead and three others missing, San Francisco authorities confirmed.
The San Francisco Fire Department received the first report of a vessel in distress at 3:37pm local time, according to Fire Chief Dean Crispen, who addressed reporters at a news conference. A marine unit that arrived on scene found a man in the water in severe distress and began CPR. He was later pronounced dead after being brought ashore.
Crispen said the vessel — a three-deck pontoon boat was carrying 20 adults, most of them family members who had gathered for what he described as a memorial service on the water. Three passengers sustained injuries and were taken to a local hospital, where they were reported to be in stable condition. The remaining 13 people aboard made it back to shore uninjured.
The fire chief’s account evolved over the course of the day. At an earlier briefing, Crispen had said 19 people were aboard and that the initial report indicated the vessel was on fire. By Tuesday evening, revised witness accounts put the number of passengers at 20, and officials clarified that the boat — a 50-foot cabin cruiser named Volare showed no evidence of fire when fire crews arrived. Instead, witnesses described rough seas that caused the vessel to take on water before capsizing in the bay.
The San Francisco Fire Department, working alongside the US Coast Guard, said search and rescue efforts for the three missing passengers would continue through the evening.
Among those who assisted in pulling survivors from the water were longshoreman Justin Marceline and fisherman Mike Montoya, who reached the scene shortly after the capsizing. Marceline told Reuters the situation was “complete chaos” when they arrived, describing passengers who were either exhausted or frantic as rescuers worked to bring them aboard.
Alcatraz Island, a former federal penitentiary turned popular tourist site, sits in San Francisco Bay waters known among local boaters for sudden shifts in wind and swell that can catch even experienced operators off guard. Authorities have not yet released further details on the cause of the capsizing or the condition of the search for the missing passengers.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Source: BBC
