1 dead and 3 missing after boat carrying mostly family members sinks near Alcatraz Island

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, (AP): One person died, three people were missing and 16 were rescued from the waters off San Francisco after a pontoon boat sank Tuesday afternoon while carrying mostly family members as part of a memorial service, authorities said. Crews arriving on the scene near Alcatraz Island found a three-deck pontoon vessel almost fully under water with the motor still running and leaking fuel, San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen said.

By Tuesday evening, authorities were searching for the missing in open ocean on the western side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The search, which involved divers, helicopters and vessels, was expected to continue all night, officials said. Authorities updated the initial number of missing people from two to three after hearing from witnesses.

"Right now we are in full rescue mode,” Crispen said, adding that three people who suffered injuries falling from the boat were taken to a hospital and expected to be released Tuesday night. Alcatraz Island, once a federal prison infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it, is now a tourist destination.

It is located in San Francisco Bay about a mile (about 1.6 kilometers) north of the city's shoreline, in an often windy area that attracts sailboats and other recreational vessels. Videos of the scene showed boats deployed to rescue people who had been on the vessel, which was largely submerged with objects floating nearby. The boating mishap was initially reported as a fire, "but we now don’t have any evidence of that,” Crispen said.

The person who died was alive when plucked from the frigid waters by rescue crews but later died. A dog onboard also died. All those rescued were taken to Gashouse Cove Marina, a small craft harbor in San Francisco. Aaron Anfinson, captain of the Bass-Tub, told the San Francisco Chronicle his boat was carrying guests toward the Golden Gate Bridge in "pretty windy, a little choppy” waters when a man on a smaller vessel flagged them down and pointed to a pontoon boat in the middle of the bay that appeared to be on fire.

By the time the Bass-Tub reached it, the flames were out, but the pontoon was sinking. Some people were already in the water while others remained aboard, Anfinson said, adding that they tried to hand out life jackets to the passengers. One woman's head was injured. "We figured we would get her first,” Anfinson said. A deckhand lowered a swim ladder and threw a life ring into the water to help pull her aboard.