SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Authorities on Wednesday continued the search for three missing people following a boating accident in the San Francisco Bay that left at least one person dead on Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities are still piecing together the crash and have not officially confirmed a cause. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said Wednesday that search teams were using thermal imaging, tide predictions and computer modeling to search for the missing people. As more time passes, the rescue operation could shift to a recovery effort.
It's unclear whether the missing adults are still in the capsized boat, which is currently sitting in a deep shipping canal about 120 feet down in the bay out of reach of rescue divers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Officials on Wednesday will try to raise the 49-foot cabin cruiser boat named Volare off the bay floor, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The United States Coast Guard has taken the lead on search operations and communications involving the incident, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Multiple witness accounts suggest rough seas may have caused the vessel to take on water and turn over in the bay, San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen said, according to KQED.
It's not clear whether the vessel ever fully flipped over, Cripsen said, adding that the top of the vessel was visible when rescuers arrived at the scene, according to the New York Times.
Randell Sharpe, a marine accident investigator in the Bay Area, told the New York Times that, based on the news images of the vessel, overcrowding may have also been a factor. That extra weight could have made it more likely to capsize, Sharpe told the New York Times.
Sixteen people were rescued from the Bay 600 yards from Alcatraz Island just before 3:37 p.m. One person and a dog died in the accident, while authorities searched overnight for three missing adults.
The person who died was identified on Wednesday as 79-year-old Clifford Boisa of Sutter County, according to the East Bay Times.
Crews quickly responded to the scene of the accident after receiving reports of a vessel on fire, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.
Officials later determined there was no blaze, and what callers thought was smoke was actually steam coming from the boat, authorities said.
As rescue crews arrived, the boat continued sinking, and several people jumped off into the bay.
"Some people were in the water. Some people were on the boat. Some people were just falling into the water," Crispen said, according to the New York Times. It's unclear if anyone had been wearing life preservers.
Authorities said the Volare is based out of Stockton and departed from the St. Francis Yacht Club. Susan Ruhne, who is listed as a commodore on the yacht club’s nonprofit filings, disputed that claim to the East Bay Times, saying the boat did not set sail from the club nor was it associated with the organization.
Authorities originally thought it was a pontoon boat, but later described it as a massive three-deck cruiser.
The boat was met by rough seas in a narrow passage between Alcatraz and the northern shore of San Francisco, according to the New York Times.
That area, which can be incredibly windy in the summer, can act as a bottleneck that quickens currents and increases wave heights, Steve Jones, a local marine surveyor with decades of boating experience, told the New York Times.
Jones told the Times that this environment can create a "treacherous" situation for any kind of boat, especially as the Bay Area experiences king tides.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a small craft advisory along the California coast, including in the Bay, warning boaters of increasingly high winds or hazardous sea conditions.
Read more from KQED, The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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