‘It just went down quickly.’ 14 rescued from sinking boat off California, video shows

Video captures the moment a sinking boat being towed to shore begins to go under as passengers leap into the ocean off Newport Beach in Southern California on Sunday.

“It was riding low in the water, it just went down quickly,” Brian O’Rourke, a Newport Beach Lifeguard battalion chief, told the Orange County Register. “They just jumped off in fear of their lives.”

Lifeguards, Harbor Patrol officers and other boaters rescued 14 people who had abandoned the 41-foot vessel, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department reported on Facebook.

“They were all rescued, and there were no injuries,” O’Rourke told the Los Angeles Times, “so that was a good outcome to a potentially life-threatening situation.”

Authorities are still investigating how the boat got into trouble, KABC reported.

The 2:45 p.m. rescue began near the entrance to the Newport Beach harbor, according to KNBC.

“It was a distance that was far enough that it could have resulted in a tragedy,” O’Rourke told the Los Angeles Times.

The boat sank in about 100 feet of water, he told the Orange County Register.