A boat carrying nearly two dozen people capsized and sank in San Francisco Bay on Tuesday afternoon, leaving one person dead and at least two missing — another grim reminder that basic safety in this city keeps taking a back seat to everything else.
The vessel went down roughly 600 yards off Alcatraz Island between the former prison and the Golden Gate Bridge just after 3:30 p.m. Sixteen people were pulled from the water, three of them hospitalized with injuries from the violent plunge into the bay. A dog also died. According to the New York Post, none of the passengers pulled from the water were wearing life jackets.
Fire officials initially responded to reports of a vessel fire. When crews arrived, they found no fire — just a boat already mostly underwater, people scrambling, and exhaust still pouring from the motor as fuel leaked into the bay. "Some people were in the water. Some people were on the boat. Some people were just falling into the water," San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen told reporters.
The vessel has since sunk 120 feet to the bottom of the bay.
There is confusion over basic facts that should be straightforward. The San Francisco Chronicle reported 20 people aboard and three missing, while the New York Times, the Guardian, and ABC7 Bay Area reported 19 aboard and two missing. The Chronicle identified the vessel as the Volare, a 49-foot cabin cruiser documented out of Stockton; other outlets, including the Times and the Guardian, described it as a "pontoon pleasure boat." The passengers were reportedly family and friends who had gathered for a memorial, departing from the St. Francis Yacht Club in the city's Marina district.
Eleven boats, helicopters, and divers searched through the night. "We are going to continue for hours to make sure we find these two missing people, if possible," Crispen said. Mayor Daniel Lurie called it an "all-hands-on-deck search and hopefully rescue," praising first responders as "heroic."
The cause remains under investigation. White caps and rough seas were reported in the area. No one has yet answered why a boatload of people in San Francisco Bay — the same waters that swallowed this vessel in minutes — was apparently operating without basic life-jacket compliance, or whether any safety inspection ever touched this craft.
The question that lingers isn't just what sank the Volare. It's who in this city is minding the store while working people pay the price.
