Coast Guard suspends the search for 11 missing after a boat capsized 140 miles west of Ensenada
The Coast Guard suspended its search on Sunday evening for 11 people still missing after a boat capsized in the Pacific west of Ensenada. Crews from the United States and Mexico searched more than 2,441 square miles. Sixteen people were rescued on Friday, three of them with injuries consistent with shark bites.
SAN DIEGO: The Coast Guard suspended its search on Sunday evening for 11 people missing after a boat capsized in the Pacific about 140 miles west of Ensenada, Mexico, ending an operation that had covered more than 2,441 square miles since Friday. Sixteen people were rescued from the water on Friday. Eleven, from a reported 27 people aboard, were never found.
The search ran a combined 89 hours with ships and aircraft from the Coast Guard, the United States Navy and Mexico, the Coast Guard said in its Sunday release. No additional people were found after the Friday rescue.
A 1 a.m. distress call, then debris
The case opened at about 1 a.m. on Friday, when watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector San Diego command center received multiple distress broadcasts reporting a vessel taking on water with 27 people reported aboard. Crews arriving on scene found vessel debris in the water, and an Air Station Ventura aircrew pulled 16 people from the sea. The rescued were transferred to hospitals in San Diego for medical assessment and care.
Three of the rescued sustained injuries consistent with shark bites, the Coast Guard said in a statement on Sunday, and Coast Guard personnel gave lifesaving first aid during the transport to San Diego, where the 16 were handed to emergency medical personnel and taken to local hospitals. San Diego Fire-Rescue assistant chief Brian Raines said about 60 fire and medical personnel responded, including 13 ambulances that transported the survivors. The Coast Guard said on Sunday that it had no updated information on the survivors' conditions.
The Mexican consulate in San Diego confirmed that all 16 of the rescued are Mexican nationals, the Associated Press reported. Customs and Border Protection personnel are interviewing the survivors, and the incident is under federal investigation, the Coast Guard said.
Three countries in the search
The suspended search involved the Coast Guard Southwest District and Sector San Diego, aircrews from Air Station Ventura and Air Station Sacramento, and the cutter Active. The Navy sent the littoral combat ship USS Kingsville and a helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23. Mexico sent the offshore patrol vessel ARM Mariano Matamoros, a 50 foot motor lifeboat and the buoy tender Sagittarius.
"We are grateful for the exceptional coordination and assistance from Mexico and the U.S. Navy throughout this challenging operation," Capt. Joseph Meuse, chief of staff of the Coast Guard Southwest District, said in the release. "Suspending a search is never easy, and this was an exceptionally dynamic case, far offshore, in rough weather."
What the vessel was, and what it was doing that far offshore, remains unconfirmed. The Coast Guard has said the boat was traveling a route normally used in illegal maritime smuggling operations, and that it has not confirmed whether the vessel was part of a smuggling enterprise or a recreational or commercial fishing boat. "This case highlights the extreme dangers of taking to the sea," Capt. Robert Tucker, the commander of Coast Guard Sector San Diego, said in an earlier statement. "The vessel had a large number of people onboard and was following a route normally used in illegal maritime smuggling operations. Offshore conditions are unforgivable and can quickly result in death."
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