A large-scale search and rescue operation is underway after a pontoon boat capsized near Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, United States, leaving one person dead and three others missing.
According to BBC News, the San Francisco Fire Department received a distress call at about 3:37 p.m. local time on Tuesday, reporting a vessel in trouble roughly 600 yards from the historic island.
Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen said the first marine rescue team to arrive found a man in severe distress in the water. Emergency responders immediately performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but he was pronounced dead after being brought ashore.
Authorities said 20 people were aboard the three-deck pontoon boat, most of them members of the same family who had gathered for a memorial service.
Rescue teams from the San Francisco Fire Department and the US Coast Guard continued searching into Tuesday evening for the three passengers who remain unaccounted for.
Three other passengers sustained injuries and were taken to a local hospital, where they were reported to be in stable condition. The remaining 13 people on board were rescued safely without injuries.
Officials had initially reported that 19 people were on the vessel and that emergency responders were responding to a possible boat fire. However, after interviewing witnesses, authorities confirmed that 20 people had been aboard the approximately 50-foot cabin cruiser and found no evidence of a fire.
Witnesses instead said the boat encountered rough waters, began taking on water and eventually overturned in the bay.
Longshoreman Justin Marceline, who joined fisherman Mike Montoya in rescuing passengers from the water, described the incident as chaotic.
“It was complete chaos when we showed up,” Marceline said.
“Every time we had to grab a person, each one of them, either they were exhausted or they were frantic and were flailing.”
Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the accident, and investigations are continuing while search crews work to locate the three missing passengers.
