‘Mayday’: Four rescued, six presumed drowned after charter boat sinks off Richmond
Two people have since been discharged from hospital, while two others remain in critical care. The remaining six are now presumed drowned.
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A desperate rescue mission shifted to a recovery operation Monday, after a capsized boat sent 10 people into frigid waters off the coast of Richmond a day earlier.
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Despite an immediate co-ordinated response from several agencies and the help of passing boaters, only four passengers were rescued, leaving six presumed drowned somewhere in the deep waters of the Strait of Georgia.
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‘Mayday’: Four rescued, six presumed drowned after charter boat sinks off Richmond Back to video
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According to a Richmond RCMP statement on Monday, an underwater recovery team will scour the water using sonar for signs of the sunken boat and the six individuals.
“Their assessment of the conditions will determine whether a dive operation is feasible, or whether alternate resources, such as a remotely operated vehicle (an underwater drone), may be required,” said police.
“The vessel is believed to have sunk in very deep waters.”
Police believe the boat had 10 people on board when it began taking on water near Roberts Bank on Sunday.
Brian Angus and Dorothy Stauffer were out on their sailboat Malaika when Angus spotted people in the water, the couple told CTV.
The retired Air Canada pilot and his wife, an onboard service director with Air Canada, radioed for help and sprang into action, telling CTV they immediately turned around their boat and the dinghy they were towing to help the three individuals.
“They were floating on their backs to stay afloat, and none of them wearing life-jackets,” said Stauffer, who said they then saw two more people for a total of five in the water.
“I basically just commanded them to swim to the line that was coming to them, the dinghy line, and to hang on.”
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The pair told CTV they were able to rescue three but lost sight of the other two, eventually making the tough decision to head to shore with the trio.
“I deal with a lot of situations in the cabin, but this is something I’ll never forget,” said Stauffer.
The couple’s mayday call to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria was received at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, sparking the large search and rescue operation.
Major Gregory Clarke said the initial report from Angus and Stauffer was that none of the survivors were wearing life-jackets.
“Certainly, we’re very grateful to that couple,” Clarke said. “They did everything right.”
As others raced to the scene, they began “to rescue those in the water using the dinghy they were towing.”
The couple got three survivors in the boat, while a Coast Guard hovercraft was about to pull in the fourth survivor, he said.
“If it wasn’t for them, frankly I think this would have been more tragic,” Clarke said. “Having people in the water without life-jackets is very alarming.”
He said the the rescue centre sent an Air Force helicopter and plane to the scene, while the RCMP also had a helicopter searching for the other six that had been aboard the fishing charter which left Steveston earlier in the day.
The Coast Guard and volunteers from Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue arrived in six vessels and were joined by B.C. Ferries, Hullo Ferries and private boats in the area, Clarke said.
“We had a great response, given the proximity to the Lower Mainland, but without life-jackets, searching for those without any flotation devices is a lot more challenging.”
Even those rescued were suffering from hypothermia after less than an hour in the water, he said.
He said the difficult decision was made to suspend the search once the chance of survival was gone.
“We’re confident that had there been any survivors on the surface of the water, we would have located them with all the assets we had on scene from the air and the water,” Clarke said.
More lives would have been saved if those on the boat had been wearing life-jackets.
“This incident, I think is going to resonate a bit bigger because of where it happened and the numbers involved,” he said. “We’re confident that had life-jackets been worn by many of these people, we would have more survivors, just based on the temperature of the water in that area. It was warmer than it normally is.”
Clarke also confirmed there was initially some language barrier with the survivors, compounded by hypothermia. But some were able to tell the RCMP that there had been 10 people on the boat, which was completely submerged by the time rescuers arrived.
By 1:15 p.m., four people had been rescued and taken to the Sea Island coast guard station in Richmond to be handed over to paramedics.
B.C. Emergency Health Services said it sent about a dozen ambulances and took four people to hospital.
Of the four rescued, a 26-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman have since been discharged from hospital, while a 22-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman remain in critical condition, police said Monday.
In a series of one-sided marine radio broadcasts reviewed by Postmedia, the Victoria coast guard radio station can be heard relaying Angus and Stauffer’s mayday call to other vessels.
“Mayday relay, this is Victoria coast guard radio,” it begins around the time of the reported sinking. “This station has received a mayday call from the sailing vessel Malaika. The Malaika is reporting five people in the water near the tango alpha buoy. If anyone is able to assist the sailing vessel Malaika with the five people in the water, you’re asked to contact this station. …
“Roger, I copy you got the sail in and you’re turning back,” the station radioed to Malaika. “Do you have eyes on all five people and are they wearing life-jackets, by chance? …
“OK, roger, are there other vessels in the area there assisting? …
“Roger, we have informed the rescue centre of your situation. We did the broadcast, just come about and start looking for your people, try to get eyes on, and we’ll try to get you some help, all right?”
In another dispatch, the crew of the B.C. Ferries Queen of Alberni was asked to divert and put its fast rescue craft in the water to help with the search.
The coast guard then heard that the Malaika had three people holding onto a rope in the water but two others couldn’t be located.
Minutes later, the coast guard hovercraft Siyay was sent to act as the lead rescue vessel.
In another broadcast, the coast guard asks: “If you can stay in the area and keep a sharp lookout, we’re still looking for six people.”
Dan MacLeod is the owner of Pursuit Sport Fishing Charters, which operates out of Richmond.
MacLeod was set to head out on a charter Sunday but cancelled after seeing the potential for rough waters.
“It’s pretty scary and yesterday’s conditions were not ideal either,” he told Postmedia.
“It was a steady 15- to 20-knot northwest wind, which comes down the strait pretty aggressively, but where the boat may have gotten trouble is an ebbing tide, and when the northwest winds come down the strait and the tide is going out, the water stacks up — we say it stacks up, so it starts getting really tall.”
According to MacLeod, the wind, the tide, and the “aggressive” Fraser River outflow due to the freshet can all combine to create a dangerous situation.
“You have three actions that are creating very, very high waves and very deep wells. So five-, six-, seven, eight–foot waves can occur, and especially in that vicinity. … It can be a treacherous spot,” he said.
“They may have got into some really, really severe waves … and 10 people on board, most likely a 30-foot (boat), and you’re asking for trouble.”
MacLeod said it’s not uncommon to spot boats leaving the Steveston dock most mornings with up to 10 people on board, none of whom are wearing life-jackets.
“It’s typically underground fishing charter companies,” he said, adding the Fisheries Department has had “a real big problem with that” and have been cracking down on unlicensed operators.
Lee Cote was working on his laptop aboard the 11:30 a.m. Hullo passenger ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo when he felt the vessel slow and then stop in open water, he said.
A passenger nearby told him a boat had capsized and that people were in the water. By the time Cote took out his earphones, the Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft was sitting nearby with its engines running, churning the water, he said. Over the next 45 minutes, he watched a B.C. Ferries vessel, a helicopter and a ring of civilian boats gather into what looked like a search perimeter.
“I’ve been on the water a lot, so I knew it wasn’t a log or a seal,” Cote said of something he spotted floating in the distance.
He said he believed it was a person, and took a photo and video before calling out to crew and other passengers. He didn’t see anyone pulled from the water, but said he watched a boat pass close to the spot.
Cote tracked the morning in text messages to his mother: The ferry stopped around 12:25 p.m., a helicopter arrived by about 12:50 p.m., and the ferry started moving again just after 1 p.m. before speeding the rest of the way to Nanaimo.
He described the water as choppy but not severe.
“It wasn’t calm, but it wasn’t that turbulent,” he said. “It was kind of just regular.”
Sarah Blyth-Gerszak was also on a Hullo ferry headed to Vancouver on Sunday when an announcement was made.
“It said seven people are in the ocean and all of the boats in the area have been sent over to see if we can help with the rescue,” Blyth-Gerszak said Monday.
When they arrived at the search area, a B.C. Ferries boat and other vessels were already there looking for survivors. The passengers joined the crew in scanning the ocean, which was wavy, Blyth-Gerszak said.
“We’re all sort of circling around with binoculars and looking for people in the water. … You could see the coast guard rushing around.”
She said it was challenging making out shapes and objects in the water. Birds and logs gave brief bits of hope. “It’s like an impossible task, just to look out in the open ocean,” she said.
After about an hour without finding anyone, the ferry was cleared to resume its voyage to Vancouver.
Blyth-Gerszak said the experience was “very surreal,” especially once she was home and learned more from news reports about what had happened.
“It seems like a non-reality when you don’t even have any context,” she said. “When you start to hear the details that maybe it was tourists … it really humanizes it. It’s just such a sad situation.”
At 9:45 p.m. Sunday, the search and rescue commander for the Victoria region decided to suspend the search and the incident was handed over to the RCMP.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada “has been made aware” of the boat sinking, media relations coordinator Hugo Fontaine said in an email.
“We are currently assessing the occurrence and collecting data. There are no plans to deploy investigators at this time,” Fontaine said.
The sinking happened around 18 kilometres southwest of Vancouver International Airport. The cause is not known and the name of the stricken boat has not yet been determined.
