Wave hit Canada boat on right side while passengers were on left side

TOFINO, British Columbia – Most of the passengers on a whale watching boat carrying 27 people that capsized off Vancouver Island were on the left side of the top deck when a wave struck the boat’s right side, causing the vessel to tilt and roll over, investigators said Tuesday.

Five British nationals were killed, and the search continued for a missing Australian man. Twenty-one people were rescued after the Leviathan II capsized Sunday afternoon.

Marc Andre Poisson, director of marine investigations for Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, said Tuesday that having so many people on the left side of the boat “raised the center of gravity.”

“We know that most passengers were on the top deck on the port side, that’s the left side of the vessel. This would have raised the center of gravity, affecting the vessel’s stability,” Poisson said at a news conference in Tofino.

“We also know that the sea conditions were such that a wave approached from the starboard quarter, that’s the right of the vessel. We know that the vessel broached and then capsized.”

He said investigators have now interviewed the three crew members and some of the passengers. One life raft deployed and was used, he said. The full investigation is expected to take months.

The British Columbia Coroners Service identified the five victims, two of whom were British nationals living in Canada. They are David Thomas, 50, and his 18-year-old son Stephen, from Swindon in southern England; Katie Taylor, 29, of Whistler, British Columbia; Nigel Francis Hooker, 63, of Southampton, England, and Jack Slater, 76, of Toronto.