6 people presumed drowned after charter boat sinks off B.C. coast, 4 rescued

The search for six people missing in the waters off the coast of Vancouver has now turned into a recovery effort.

Richmond RCMP said four men and two women remain unaccounted for and are presumed drowned after a charter boat sank off the coast of Richmond, in the Roberts Bank area.

The RCMP Underwater Recovery Team (URT) has been called in and will try to locate the capsized vessel using sonar. Their assessment of the conditions will determine whether a dive operation is feasible or whether alternate resources, such as a remotely operated vehicle, may be required, RCMP said.

The vessel is believed to have sunk in very deep waters.

Four people were rescued following the capsizing.

A 26-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman have since been discharged from hospital. A 33-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman both remain in critical condition, RCMP said.

Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Victoria was notified by a civilian vessel at about 11:45 a.m. that there were several people in the water without personal flotation devices approximately 10 nautical miles southwest of Vancouver International Airport.

“We received a call from a sailing vessel that happened upon people in the water without life jackets at various spots, and they were alarmed, didn’t see any boat nearby, and they called us right away,” Major Greg Clarke, the Officer in Charge (OIC) at the JRCC, told Global News.

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“They attempted then to promptly recover as many of those people as they could, using their dinghy that they were towing to try to get them to hold on, and concurrently we issued a Mayday broadcast on behalf of that vessel, and resulted in a very fast response from several assets, including the hovercraft out of Sea Island, which was fairly close.”

A Cormorant helicopter and a Kingfisher aircraft were dispatched, with the Canadian Coast Guard Hovercraft Siyay and the Main lifeboat station Ganges also sent. RCMSAR auxiliary stations 6, 7, 8 and BC Ferries vessels were also dispatched to help in the search and rescue operation.

By 1:15 p.m., the military and RCMP say four people had been taken to Sea Island Coast Guard Station before being transferred to emergency health services.

The search continued for the six people believed to still be in the water, but CAF says that at 9:45 p.m., a decision was made to suspend the search and rescue operation. They then transitioned the operation to RCMP.

Clarke said they believe the group was on a fishing trip out of the Richmond Steveston area, but he did not know where the boat came from.

He said the conditions were choppy at the time, with some wind, but said Roberts Bank can be a challenging area to navigate because it is where the fresh water from the Fraser River mixes with the colder ocean water and that creates some challenging currents.

“I’m not a mariner, but I know that that can be a tough area to negotiate, but I don’t know for certain why or what happened to that vessel, as far as why they ended up in the water, as well, the most tragic part is the absence of life jackets or PFDs on the individuals, and the reports that none of the others had life jackets either makes for searching for cooperative targets very challenging,” Clarke added.

“Without flotation, people are really at the mercy of their ability to swim and tread water, and with that chop and that curve, it would be very challenging to last very long.”

2:15 Major marine rescue in Strait of Georgia

Witness Sarah Blyth-Gerszak, who was on board a Hullo Ferry that answered the call, told Global News on Sunday that the initial response to the emergency was big.

“They just called all the boats to the area to come and look into the ocean to see what we could see,” she said.

“And, so yeah, obviously, it’s a terrible thing to think that there’s people in the ocean. And all you can hope is that someone can see something and that someone would be rescued.”

Transport Canada is investigating.

— with files from Global News’ Jacob New