VICTORIA -- The BC Coroners Service is investigating the death of a man in his late 70s near Hornby Island Tuesday evening.
Paramedics, including an air ambulance, responded to the scene at approximately 5 p.m. and transported one person to hospital.
The Canadian Coast Guard says it sent a fast rescue craft to the south end of Hornby after reports of a boating accident.
Hornby Island Fire Rescue says it was dispatched to a patient suffering from hypothermia after a boat overturned. The fire service says that while en route to the scene, firefighters received word of a second patient who was possibly dead.
"The next arriving crew went to the marina where they boarded the Hornby Island Diving dive boat to find the other patient," Horndy Island Fire Rescue said on its Facebook page Wednesday morning.
"They located him, unresponsive, on Norris Rock. They got him into the boat and worked on him on the way back to Ford's Cove Marina where the BC Air Ambulance crew and our doctor met them to continue [resuscitation] efforts. Sadly, the doctor pronounced him dead at the marina."
Employees at the marina tell CTV News the scene was clear by approximately 6 p.m.
Hornby Island Fire Rescue says the victim did not appear to be wearing a life-jacket when the boat capsized. "His friend was able to drag him to Norris Rock where he was able to right the boat and row it to Hornby to get help," the fire service said.
The Comox Valley RCMP are investigating.
This is the second fatal boating incident in a week off Vancouver Island after a man in his 50s was killed on a boat Sunday during an explosion and fire at the North Saanich Marina.
Hornby Island is located off the east side of Vancouver Island, between Parksville and Courtenay.
