Charter boat sinks off Vancouver with six feared dead

Six are feared dead after a charter boat sinks off Vancouver, rescuers say no mayday was sent and no lifejackets were worn, a passing sailboat crew makes the crucial distress call

A charter vessel sank off the coast of Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia around midday on a Sunday, with six people feared dead, according to The Guardian. The boat was thought to have been carrying 10 people before it went down, and authorities said it did not issue a mayday or distress call. Two survivors—a man and a woman—were reported in critical condition, while another man and woman were discharged from hospital.

The vessel had departed from the community of Steveston, The Guardian reports. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police underwater team was preparing to search for the sunken boat, while the RCMP’s major crimes unit took the lead in determining whether a collision or criminal behaviour played a role. Rescue officials called the incident “bizarre”, pointing to the rapid sinking combined with the absence of any distress signal.

The first alarm, instead, came from nearby civilians. A sailing couple, Dorothy Stauffer and Brian Angus, spotted people in the water and made a mayday call that brought search-and-rescue assets to the scene, according to The Guardian. Stauffer, trained in emergency procedures as a former flight attendant, said the group appeared weak and hypothermic. The couple rescued three people from the water, and search teams retrieved a fourth; they initially saw five people but then lost sight of one who disappeared beneath the surface.

The geography around Vancouver can look forgiving—close to land, busy with traffic, near major population centres—but the water does not negotiate. The sinking occurred close to where fresh river water meets the ocean, an area officials described as hazardous for survival. Maj Gregory Clarke of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre told The Guardian that survival time in the water can be up to 10 hours with flotation devices, but cold water and strong currents can sharply reduce that window.

That makes the detail about lifejackets more than a footnote. Authorities said none of the passengers were wearing them. In an emergency that left no time for a radio call, the only margin left is what is already on the body when the boat starts to go.

An air force plane flew a grid pattern over the search area for about seven hours as the investigation and recovery planning continued. By the time divers prepared to look for the hull, the first mayday had already come from a sailboat that happened to be close enough to see heads in the water.