Search for survivors continues after boat capsizes near Tofino
The official search for three people missing off the coast near Tofino after a boat capsized Friday has been scaled back, with no sign of survivors. But that didn’t stop scores of local residents from continuing the search on the weekend.
Hundreds of volunteers from nearby Tofino and Ucluelet, as well as members of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation where the missing boaters are from, scoured the water and the coastline of the area’s many islands on Saturday.
Five people were on an open aluminum boat in the early morning hours Friday, when it flipped and sank without a mayday call.
Katelyn Moores, a spokeswoman with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, said crews were called out around 3 a.m. Friday, after people on the shoreline in the Duffin Cove area heard cries for help and called 911.
Several Canadian Coast Guard boats and the RCMP responded, along with a Cormorant helicopter from Canadian Forces Base Comox and a coast guard helicopter.
Tofino RCMP Sgt. Todd Pebernat said the two people who were found were from out of town and have been released from hospital. He said the search for the three missing men, members of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, would continue until dark on Saturday.
Conor Paone, spokesman for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, said counselling and emotional support is being provided to their families.
“We have a really strong cultural community at the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and we also have a strong community locally in Tofino,” Paone said from the First Street dock, which was blocked off by police tape.
One person was located in the water by rescuers at around 3:30 a.m. Friday and treated by paramedics in Tofino. That person wasn’t wearing a life-jacket, officials said.
Moores said a second person swam to shore and was located at about 4:20 a.m. That person was taken to hospital in Tofino, as well.
The three remaining passengers are unaccounted for. Navy Lt. Melissa Kai of the JRCC said it’s impossible to know whether they’ll be found.
The search focused on a 41-kilometre squared grid, including all of Templar Channel.
The weather was favourable for the search, she added.
Personal details about the people on the boat haven’t been made public. Neither is it known how the boat sank or why it was out on the water in the early morning.
There were no witnesses to the sinking, Moores said, and the two people who made it back to shore have been unable to explain why the boat capsized.