A boat suspected of being carrying immigrants being smuggling into the U. S. overturned off the coast of San Diego Sunday May 2, 2021. Four people drowned and more than 20 were recovered and sent to hospital. The captain of the boat, some reported as a 40-foot cabin cruiser and others as a 40-foot trawler-style boat capsized on the rocks, is in custody. It reportedly hit a reef and broke apart.
The incident occurred near the Point Loma Tide Pools in the Cabrillo National Monument. Coast Guard Sector San Diego dispatched a Coast Guard Station San Diego 45-foot Response Boat-Medium crew, a Sector San Diego MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and a Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento C-27 Spartan aircrew. The Coast Guard Cutters Blackfin, Haddock and Robert Ward were also diverted to the scene.
San Diego Harbor Police, San Diego Fire-Rescue and SDFD Lifeguards, San Diego Fire Department, Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, Office of Field Operations, Homeland Security Investigations and National Park Service assisted in the rescue.
Twenty-nine people have reportedly been accounted for, consisting of twenty-four people alive, four people declared deceased by local emergency medical services personnel and one person who was last reported to be in critical condition.