News Oceans

Alcatraz escapees could have made it safely to shore

Simulations of San Francisco Bay reveal survivable scenarios for prison break

Alcatraz Island

GREAT ESCAPE  Three convicts who escaped the prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962 using a crude raft could have made it ashore, a new computer simulation of the San Francisco Bay suggests.

William Warby/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

By Thomas Sumner

- More than 2 years ago

SAN FRANCISCO — Three inmates who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962 and set off into the San Francisco Bay on a makeshift raft could have safely reached shore if they timed their escape just right, new research suggests.