Skipper Faces Charges in Deaths

Mexican authorities said Sunday they will charge a tour boat operator with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly failing to distribute life vests to passengers on a Baja California excursion boat that capsized, killing three American women.

Though the captain, Pedro Arias Elenis, 27, saved several people as they struggled to swim to shore, police believe he is also at fault for steering the boat into dangerous waters off the coast of Cabo San Lucas on Friday.

Many passengers from Carnival Cruise Line’s Elation, which returned to San Pedro on Sunday, were in other pleasure vessels at the time and saw the aftermath of the accident. They described a strangely chaotic scene.

Survivors, they said, clung to rocks and ran along the small beach, their screams drowned out by the roar of the 8-foot waves. The captain and local rescue teams helped many of the people reach shore, including one elderly woman trapped under the boat.

Fifteen passengers were on the small vessel. Ten suffered minor injuries. Witnesses and authorities estimated the boat was 50 to 100 yards from shore when it overturned.

The three women who died, authorities said, either couldn’t swim or were tossed against the rocks. Killed in the accident were Paulina Armijo, 54, a teacher from New Mexico; Elizabeth Steven, 64, a retired teacher from Alaska; and Dorothy Farnman, 32, a California resident.

The accident occurred Friday morning, soon after the Elation arrived in Cabo San Lucas from Mazatlan. Passengers were given four hours of shore leave and many headed to the pier, where fleets of locally operated boats offer snorkeling and sightseeing trips.

The passengers on the doomed, glass-bottom vessel were headed to one of the area’s most popular tourist destinations: El Arco, an arch-shaped rock formation that dominates the harbor at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Authorities say the area, at the confluence of the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean, is treacherous because of its unpredictable currents and large swells. As the boat approached the rocks, they said, a large wave blindsided the vessel.

“They got too close. The waves were huge,” said Ken Hahn, a tourist from Northern California who was on a boat that had turned back from the area just moments earlier.

After the accident, tourists returning to the pier from their excursions saw at least two bodies lying in the sun behind a yellow police tape. One man said rescue workers requested his extra-large beach towel so they could cover one of the bodies.

“It was very upsetting,” said Rebecca Davis, a Las Vegas resident who was on vacation with a friend.

Looking for the Missing at Dinner

Some passengers didn’t know who had died in the accident and endured several agonizing hours worried that they had lost loved ones.

“The kids were looking at tables at dinner to see who was missing,” said Debby Casillas, a San Gabriel resident who was with her husband and four daughters.

As passengers disembarked Sunday, many complimented Carnival for what they called the company’s sensitive handling of the incident. The ship’s captain, they said, memorialized the deceased with a moment of silence and kept everyone informed.

But others were angry, saying the crew failed to make them aware of the risks of local boats.

“They were encouraged to travel to these places that were inherently dangerous,” said Florida resident Ted Kay.

Carnival officials were unavailable for comment.

Mexican police said Elenis, the captain, will be formally charged today. As an operator with 10 years’ experience, they said, Elenis should have prepared the passengers for the excursion. Though Elenis claimed that the passengers had refused to wear the life vests, police said the other passengers disputed his account.

“We think he should be held accountable,” said Pablo Carrillo Garcia, an investigator with the Cabo San Lucas Police Department.