Mayday Indicates Boat May Have Sunk

The Coast Guard was searching the ocean Monday night between Dana Point and Oceanside for possible survivors of a vessel that might have caught fire and sunk, authorities said.

Coast Guard officials received a Mayday call about 2:45 p.m. from a person in an inflatable lifeboat, Coast Guard Lt. Bret White said.

“It was a weak transmission,” White said of the distress call, adding that it appeared to have been made from a hand-held radio.

A search was launched immediately after the call, he said. The Coast Guard also made periodic broadcasts over marine radio frequencies, asking for information from other mariners who might have heard the Mayday call or seen wreckage or survivors.

White said there had been unconfirmed reports that the person making the call spoke with a foreign accent and that his vessel had burned and sunk. There were also unconfirmed reports that people had died on the unidentified vessel, he said.

“There is a possibility of injuries,” White said.

A Coast Guard helicopter and jet were searching the ocean from about Dana Point south to Oceanside and as far west as San Clemente Island.

“It’s a very large search area,” White said, adding that weather conditions were favorable for the search.