Boat believed to be carrying migrants capsizes off California coast,
leaving 3 dead and 7 missing
[May 06, 2025]
By JULIE WATSON and CHRISTOPHER WEBER
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A small boat believed to be carrying migrants capsized
early Monday off San Diego's coast and left three people dead and four
injured, while U.S. Coast Guard crews were searching for seven others,
officials said.
Initially nine people were reported missing but later two were found and
detained, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Hunter Schnabel said. He did
not know which agency detained the individuals or why. The U.S. Border
Patrol did not immediately respond to an email asking if they were
involved.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey said it was unclear where
the boat was coming from before it flipped shortly after sunrise about
35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the Mexico border. He described the
vessel as a panga, single or twin-engine open fishing boats commonly
used by smugglers.
“They were not tourists,” Sappey said. “They are believed to be
migrants.”
Migrants are increasingly turning to the risky alternative offered by
smugglers to travel by sea to avoid heavily guarded land borders,
including off California's coast. Pangas leave the Mexican coast in the
dead of night, sometimes charting hundreds of miles north.
The four injured people were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La
Jolla, the hospital said in an email. All were being treated for
respiratory related issues after arriving by ambulance. Three were in
their 30s and one was a teen. No other details were provided.
The Coast Guard deployed a helicopter and boat to search for the
missing.
Hikers and others at Torrey Pines State Beach reported seeing a boat
capsize near the shore at about 6:30 a.m., said Lt. Nick Backouris of
the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
“A doctor hiking nearby called in and said, ‘I see people doing CPR on
the beach, I’m running that way,'” Backouris said.
Winds were light in the area, with slow-rolling waves reaching about 6
feet (1.8 meters), according to Sebastian Westerink, a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service office in San Diego. The water
temperature was 63 degrees (17 Celsius), he said.
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Del Mar lifeguards looks over a capsized boat on the beach Monday,
May 5, 2025, in at Torrey Pines State beach in San Diego, Calif. (AP
Photo/Denis Poroy)
A bulldozer moved the panga on the beach as the search was underway.
The wooden skiff that was over 20 feet long (6 meters) had scuffed
blue paint and wooden planks for seats. Inside the boat were a pair
of running shoes, more than a dozen life vests, an empty waterproof
cell phone bag and various water bottles. Its engine was visibly
damaged.
In 2023, eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats
approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog. One boat capsized in the
surf. It was one of the deadliest maritime smuggling cases in waters
off the U.S. coast.
A federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison in
2022 for piloting a small vessel overloaded with 32 migrants that
smashed apart in powerful surf off San Diego’s coast, killing three
people and injuring more than two dozen others.
Prosecutors said Antonio Hurtado was high on drugs when he drove the
migrants into rough, stormy seas in the dark in May 2021. As
5-to-8-foot (1.5-2.4-meter) waves pounded the vessel, he jumped
overboard and swam to shore, abandoning the passengers he had told
to hide in the cabin and under deck. The boat capsized and broke
apart as they were hurled into the early morning waters.
Worldwide, nearly 9,000 people died last year attempting to cross
borders, the UN agency for migration said last month. The death toll
set a record for the fifth year in a row.
The U.N. Missing Migrant Project puts the number of the dead and
missing in the central Mediterranean at over 24,506 from 2014 to
2024, many of them lost at sea. The project says the number may be
greater as many deaths go unrecorded.
___
Weber reported from Los Angeles.
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