6 still missing, 4 rescued after charter boat sinks in B.C.’s Georgia Strait

Four people have been rescued but a search continues for six people missing after a charter boat sank in British Columbia’s Georgia Strait on Sunday.

One of the people rescued was taken to hospital in critical condition, while the other three were in stable condition, according to B.C. Emergency Health Services.

The B.C. RCMP said it is believed that 10 people were aboard the boat when it began taking on water near Roberts Bank, about 10 nautical miles southwest of Vancouver Airport, at around 11:45 a.m. PT.

Brian Angus and Dorothy Stauffer were taking their sailboat from Vancouver to Saturna Island, a Gulf Island, when they spotted five people lying flat in the water near the south arm of the Fraser River.

‘Shocking’ sight in water

“There’s no doubt they were hypothermic and none of them had life jackets on, which was really shocking,” Stauffer said.

There was no sign of a vessel, they said.

“There was no debris in the water. There was nothing,” said Angus, a former Royal Vancouver Yacht Club commodore.

“We’ve sailed all our lives. We couldn’t see anything. It was such a surprise to see these five people in the water.”

The couple, a former airline captain and service director with Air Canada, called in a mayday, then began circling the group and using the dinghy they were towing as a life raft.

They were only able to get three of the five people on the dinghy.

“We lost sight of the other two, we decided to just go for the three that were closer together, that’s the decision — a hard one — we had to make,” Angus said.

A Coast Guard hovercraft arrived within about 20 minutes and was able to collect the two men and a woman that had grabbed hold of the dinghy, the couple said.

Angus and Stauffer are still coming to terms with the rescue.

“I want to focus on the three lives,” Angus said.

“But it is going to be hard to let go of the fact that I couldn’t see the remaining two that I had seen of the original five because it was just so lumpy and rolly and rough,” Stauffer said.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre says it deployed a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter and a CC-295 Kingfisher aircraft from Comox, B.C., along with the Canadian Coast Guard Hovercraft Siyay and Main Lifeboat Station Ganges, plus auxiliary rescue resources.

Two RCMP vessels as well as an RCMP Black Hawk and an H145 Airbus helicopter also joined the search, which stretched late into Sunday evening.

As of 3:15 p.m. PT, the JRCC said four people had been taken to the Sea Island Coast Guard Station and transferred to paramedics.

However, it said the search was ongoing for another six people believed to be in the water.

RCMP said the cause of the incident remained unknown, and the circumstances were still under investigation.

WATCH | Search for six missing people in Georgia Strait:

6 missing, 4 pulled from B.C.’s Georgia Strait amid marine rescue

Four people have been pulled from the water, but search and rescue crews remain in the Georgia Strait Sunday evening where as many as six people may still be missing. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said it was notified around 11:45 a.m. of “several people in the water without personal flotation devices” about 10 nautical miles southwest of the Vancouver International Airport. As the CBC’s Troy Charles reports, four people were taken to the Sea Island Coast Guard Station and transferred to paramedics.

Ferries join rescue effort

B.C. Ferries said it diverted two vessels on the Tsawwassen-Duke Point route, the Queen of Alberni and the Coastal Inspiration, to help with the search.

A Hullo passenger ferry also joined the efforts.

Natasha Jung and her family were aboard the Queen of Alberni when she says the captain notified passengers they were joining the search.

Jung said that when the ferry stopped there was a sailboat nearby that began circling that may have been assisting with the search.

She added that a hovercraft and helicopter were quick to arrive and begin circling the area, and were joined by a number of civilian vessels.

“I could see the boats coming in quite speedily from different areas to support the search efforts,” she said.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

B.C. Ferries said the vessels did not physically retrieve anyone from the water and were cleared to depart around 2 p.m. PT as other assets joined the search.