Motorboat capsizes off Boracay; 10 American tourists, 3 crewmen rescued

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Thirteen passengers of a motorboat including 10 American tourists were rescued after the boat capsized off Boracay Island Thursday afternoon.

Lt. Rodolfo dela Peña, commander of the Coast Guard station in Malay town, said the American tourists and three Filipino crewmen were unharmed and only suffered bruises. They were, however brought to the Don Ciriaco Tirol Memorial Hospital in Boracay for observation.

The tourists were on their way back to the island around 1:30 p.m. after a day of island-hopping when the motorboat “Capitan K” was hit by a squall, or a sudden increase in wind velocity.

The strong winds and big waves forced the outrigger-fitted boat to capsize about 500 meters from Barangay Yapak, at the northeastern side of the 1,032-hectare island, Dela Peña told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.

Rescuers from the Coast Guard plucked the passengers from the water in three batches with the last five including two American tourists taken out from the water around 4 p.m. near Sitio Ilig-Iligan in Yapak, around 700 meters from where the boat capsized.