Eight Dead After Panga Boat Capsizes Near San Diego
- The San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Division received a call about a capsized panga boat on Saturday night.
- The call came from a person who was on another panga boat carrying 15 people that had made it to the shore of Black's Beach.
- The San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Division arrived on scene and found seven bodies and two overturned panga boats.
- An eighth person was found dead by Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations officers.
Eight people have died after a panga boat capsized in the water near San Diego on Saturday night, authorities said.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Division received a call at around 11:30 p.m. It came from someone who said she was on a panga boat carrying 15 people that had made it to the shore at Black's Beach, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) spokeswoman Monica Muñoz told Newsweek.
The person said another panga boat that was carrying eight people had capsized and those people were in the water, Muñoz added.
A rescue effort was launched. GPS coordinates from the caller's cellphone were used to work out that the incident occurred about 800 yards north of the base of Blackgold Road.
Muñoz said the first SDFD lifeguard unit to arrive on scene could not access the beach because of the high tide.
Lifeguards "proceeded north on foot wading through knee- to waist-deep water," Muñoz said. "After a couple hundred yards, lifeguards on the beach reached dry sand and then began to find lifeless bodies and two overturned pangas spread over an area of about 400 yards." Those lifeguards located the bodies of seven people, Muñoz added.
Additional lifeguards, firefighters, medics and officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrived on scene to aid the recovery effort, she said.
"Lifeguards pulled victims from knee-deep water and from the waterline up the beach to dry sand," Muñoz added. During the recovery, an eighth person was found dead by CBP Air and Marine Operations officers. Several life jackets and fuel barrels were also found.
The victims were all turned over to the San Diego County Medical Examiner at the base of Blackgold Road, Muñoz said.
She declined to provide details about the victims. Muñoz told Newsweek that rescue crews "didn't encounter anyone alive" at the scene, and the whereabouts of the people who were on the other panga boat were not clear.
Crews from several agencies searched the area from the air and in the water from late on Saturday night, and some continued searching on Sunday morning.
Newsweek has emailed U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard for further comment.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will hold a joint news conference at 10 a.m. local time.
