Heroes reveal horror they saw as they dragged boaters from ocean near Alcatraz — 1 dead, 3 still missing

Rescuers in the catastrophic San Francisco Bay boat sinking near Alcatraz described a chaotic scene when they arrived to help the drowning boaters on Tuesday.

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Commercial fishermen Mike Montoya and Justin Marceline said the victims banged on windows and tried to stay alive as they pulled them from the water.

“There was even people banging at the windows as they were like filing out, and as soon as people were hitting the water, we were just trying to pick them up as fast as we can,” they told NBC Bay Area. “Some people didn’t even have life vests on and they were drowning.”

Of the 20 boaters on the 49-foot cabin cruiser Volare, one is dead, and three remain missing, the San Francisco Police Department told The California Post Wednesday morning.

A dog also died. The Coast Guard and San Francisco Fire Department are still searching for the three individuals, and they’re using “thermal imaging, tide prediction, and modeling to help direct search efforts.”

The fishermen suggested the boat’s sinking will haunt them. “You don’t know the feeling until you see it and it happens first-hand but it’s….nothing I’d like to experience again,” Marceline said.

Officials said Wednesday that the vessel was roughly 600 yards off Alcatraz between the infamous island and the Golden Gate Bridge when it started sinking beneath the frigid waters of the bay Tuesday afternoon.

The San Francisco Police Department Marine 3 vessel was the first public safety vessel on scene and confirmed that reported smoke was in fact steam from the vessel.

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Authorities saved 17 people, but one person needed life-saving measures and later died. Three others were hospitalized.

The boat, described as a pontoon boat, is believed to have launched from the St. Francis Yacht Club.

“Right now we are in full rescue mode,” San Francisco fire chief Dean Crispen said Tuesday night. 

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said the rescue effort is a massive, multi-agency response and an “all-hands-on-deck search and hopefully rescue.”

The San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Fire Department, United States Coast Guard, Oakland Police Department, Tiburon Fire Department, and Southern Marin Fire Protection District, as well as commercial and recreational vessels in the area, are participating in the effort.

James Smith of Berkeley, a captain of a charter fishing boat, said in his multiple decades on the water that incidents like this still horrify him.

“I’ve been a charter operator for 35-plus years, and it’s pretty horrific anytime you see an accident like this,” Smith told NBC Bay Area.

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The exact cause of the boat’s sinking is unknown.