Boat believed to be carrying migrants capsizes off San Diego, leaving 3 dead and 9 missing

DEL MAR, Calif. (KABC) — Three people are dead and several others are unaccounted for after a boat washed ashore near the San Diego area Monday morning, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Crews responded to a report of an overturned vessel off the coast of Del Mar around 6:30 a.m., officials said.

When they arrived, they found three deceased individuals and four survivors in need of medical care. Nine other people remain unaccounted for. None of them have been identified.

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 north of the Mexico border. He described the vessel as a panga. Pangas are open fishing boats commonly used by smugglers.

“They were not tourists,” Sappey said. “They are believed to be migrants.”

Several agencies were at the scene searching the waters for those missing individuals.

A bulldozer moved the panga on the beach as the search was underway. The wooden dinghy 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 single engine was visibly damaged.

Smuggling off the California coast has long been a risky alternative for migrants to avoid heavily guarded land borders. Small boats with single or twin engines known as “pangas” leave from the Mexican coast in the dead of night, sometimes charting hundreds of miles north.

In 2023, eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats approached a San Diego beach amid heavy fog. One boat capsized in the surf. It was one of the deadliest maritime smuggling cases in waters off the U.S. coast.