The US Coast Guard has suspended efforts to find 11 people who have gone missing after a boat sank approximately 140 miles (230 kilometres) west of Ensenada in Mexico's Baja California state.
The coast guard said participating services conducted a combined 89 hours of searching across more than 2,441 square miles (6,320 square kilometres), with the Mexican Navy and the US Navy participating.
On Friday, October 16, rescuers saved 16 people and took them to hospitals in San Diego.
"Suspending a search is never easy, and this was an exceptionally dynamic case, far offshore, in rough weather," said Captain Joseph Meuse, Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard Southwest District. "We can say with confidence that human traffickers have zero regard for human life and routinely put the lives of illegal aliens and the lives of rescue crews at risk."
At around 01:00 local time on Friday, multiple distress broadcasts reached watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector San Diego command centre, stating that water was entering a vessel carrying 27 people. The call was made in Spanish.
An aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Ventura reached the scene about two hours after the mayday call and spent roughly 90 minutes recovering the 16 survivors from the water with the help of a rescue swimmer, Lieutenant Santiago Tamburini told the Associated Press.
Responding crews found vessel debris but no intact hull, and the coast guard has not confirmed the total number of people who were aboard.
"All we found was debris, and certain floating seats that are starting to give us a better idea of what vessel it may have been," Tamburini told NBC 7 San Diego.
The coast guard confirmed to CBS 8 that three of the survivors had injuries indicative of shark bites and that its personnel provided first aid during the flight to San Diego.
San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Assistant Fire Chief Brian Raines told NBC 7 San Diego that 13 ambulances took the survivors to local hospitals and that two people were in critical condition. The coast guard had no update on the survivors' conditions as of Sunday.
The Mexican Consulate General in San Diego said all 16 survivors were Mexican nationals and that its staff had visited hospitals across San Diego County to provide them with consular assistance.
The search also involved Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, the coast medium endurance cutter USCGC Active, the US Navy Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Kingsville, and a US Navy helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23. Mexico deployed an Uribe-class offshore patrol vessel, a rescue boat and a buoy tender from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport.
By Sunday, rescue aircraft and US Navy ships had left the area, leaving one coast guard cutter and two Mexican Navy ships on scene before the suspension. Coordination had passed to the Coast Guard Command Center in Alameda.
The vessel sank in Mexican waters but within the US Coast Guard area of responsibility.
Captain Robert Tucker, commander of Coast Guard Sector San Diego, said on Friday that the boat, "had a large number of people onboard and was following a route normally used in illegal maritime smuggling operations.”
The coast guard confirmed to The New York Times that Homeland Security Investigations will lead the inquiry into the incident. The boat's departure point, destination and the cause of the sinking have not been established.
