Retired Sutter County deputy dead, 3 people missing after boat sinks near Alcatraz
A 79-year-old Sutter County resident died and three people remained missing nearly a day after a Stockton boat sank off the waters of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, authorities said Wednesday afternoon.
The 49-foot pleasure craft vessel, registered out of Stockton, was out for a recreational voyage when it “took a wave” and quickly rolled over, Commander Jarod Toczko, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a news conference. A group of 20 close family and friends from the Sacramento and Stockton areas were aboard the boat and fell into the water after it capsized.
Two fishermen and a kite boarder near the scene initially alerted authorities to the capsizing around 3:37 p.m. Tuesday and helped pull victims from the waters, officials said.
Following the immediate support of the “good Samaritans” and a nearly daylong search and rescue operations, crews said that they had successfully located and transported 13 of the victims aboard the watercraft to Gashouse Cove. They received services — including three who were sent to the emergency room — and have since returned home.
However, three people remained missing, and one person died after the sinking, San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen said at the Wednesday afternoon news conference.
The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office in a news release identified the deceased victim as retired reserve deputy Clifford Boisa, 79, who had served the agency from 1987 to 2001.
“Sheriff Brandon Barnes and the members of the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office extend their heartfelt condolences to the Boisa family, as well as to the families and loved ones of all those involved in this tragic incident,” the statement read, in part.
Rescue efforts to end at sunset
After nearly 23 hours in the water and scouring a search area of 950 square nautical miles, Toczko said that crews had “completely saturated the search area” and had been unsuccessful in locating any survivors.
Given the extensive search effort and environmental conditions, Toczko said that the U.S. Coast Guard would suspend search and rescue operations by sunset Wednesday evening. Families of the missing individuals had been notified of the decision, he confirmed.
“Suspending an active search is one of the most difficult things we do as Coast Guard commanders,” Toczko said. “I don’t take that responsibility lightly, at all. Our goal is always to bring home families’ loved ones.”
According to Toczko, that there was a “high possibility” that individuals could have been trapped inside the vessel, which had three levels, including an enclosed lower deck. Survivors indicated that occupants were on the main deck and potentially lower deck, the U.S. Coast Guard commander said.
However, San Francisco Police Department and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, who were working jointly to identify the exact location of the vessel, had yet to confirm the feasibility of lifting the vessel as of Wednesday afternoon.
Having sunk approximately 130 feet deep, the vessel would be “extremely difficult” for divers to reach, and would require an underwater drone to determine whether the vessel was structurally sound enough to recover, Toczko and Brian Hu, Commander of the Special Operations Bureau with the San Francisco Police Department, said at the news conference.
Such an operation would only occur if the rescue operation were to become a recovery one, Hu said. In that case, agencies would look to partner with specialized companies to recover and lift the boat, he added.
“We always hold out hope, right? That’s why we’re still searching,” Toczko said.
