Tommy Bean leaves flowers on a car believed to belong to a victim of a last night's duck boat accident in Branson, Missouri. Photo / AP
Tommy Bean leaves flowers on a car believed to belong to a victim of a last night's duck boat accident in Branson, Missouri. Photo / AP
The country-and-western tourist town of Branson, Missouri, mourned yesterday for more than a dozen sightseers who were killed when a duck boat capsized and sank in stormy weather in the deadliest such accident in almost two decades.
Divers found four more bodies in Table Rock Lake, bringing the death toll to 17, including the crew member who was driving the amphibious boat. In their initial assessment, authorities blamed thunderstorms and winds that approached hurricane strength, and a full investigation was underway.
The weather service station in Springfield, about 64 kilometres north of Branson, issued a severe thunderstorm watch for its immediate area Thursday, saying conditions were ripe for winds of 70mph. It followed up at 6.32pm with a severe thunderstorm warning for three counties that included Branson and the lake. The warning mentioned both locations. The boat went down about 40 minutes later, shortly after 7pm.
"When we issue a warning, it means take action," meteorologist Kelsey Angle said.
Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, said the company was assisting authorities. She said this was the company's only accident in more than 40 years of operation.
The boat was carrying 29 passengers and two crew members on a pleasure cruise, and everyone aboard had been accounted for by midday Friday. Seven of the 14 survivors were hurt when the vessel went down. At least two were hospitalised in critical condition. The captain survived, authorities said.
Nine members of an Indianapolis family were killed in the accident, according to Missouri Governor Mike Parson. The names of the Indianapolis victims have not yet been released.
A family member says the family was on vacation in Missouri. Five adults and four children from the family were killed.
#BREAKING Family members say this photo shows 8 of the 9 victims from Indy who were on a duck boat near Branson, Missouri when a storm hit yesterday. https://t.co/yYpJvnp6zy
Five adults and four children (all under the age of 10) from the family were killed. pic.twitter.com/2JRrBotrSi
Brayden Malaske, of Harrah, Oklahoma, was on vacation with family when he boarded a replica 19th-century paddle wheeler known as the Branson Belle on the same lake just before the storm hit.
At the time, he said, the lake seemed calm, and no one was worried about the weather.
"But it suddenly got very dark," he recalled.
In a short video taken by Malaske from a dock, the duck boat can be seen wallowing through the choppy, wind-whipped lake, with water only inches from its windows. Dark, rolling waves crash over its front end. The footage ends before the boat capsizes.
Ducks boat sits idle in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks, an amphibious tour operator in Branson, Missouri. The vehicles are similar to the one that sank, killing 17 people. Photo / AP
Later, people on Malaske's boat saw a duck boat passenger "hanging on for dear life" to the paddle wheel of the Belle, he said.
The mayor identified the crew member driving the boat as Bob Williams, known informally as "Captain Bob."
"He was at a great ambassador for Branson," Best said. "He was at every event. He knew everyone. He was always promoting Branson."
Authorities had not publicly identified the dead but said they included a 1-year-old child.
Named for their ability to travel on land and in water, duck boats have been involved in other serious accidents in the past, including the deaths of more than 40 people since 1999.
Five college students were killed in 2015 in Seattle when a duck boat collided with a bus. Thirteen people died in 1999 when a boat sank near Hot Springs, Arkansas.
"Duck boats are death traps," said Andrew Duffy, an attorney whose Philadelphia law firm handled litigation related to two fatal duck boat accidents there. "They're not fit for water or land because they are half car and half boat."
Safety advocates have sought improvements and complained that too many agencies regulate the boats with varying safety requirements.
Emergency workers patrol an area yesterday, near where a duck boat capsized the night before resulting in at least 17 deaths. Photo / AP
The boats were originally designed for the military, specifically to transport troops and supplies in World War II. They were later modified for use as sightseeing vehicles.
Passengers on a nearby boat described the chaos on the lake as the winds picked up and the water turned rough.
"Debris was flying everywhere," Allison Lester said in an interview Friday with ABC's "Good Morning America."
We saw high winds + bad weather roll in, so I decided to get a refund and leave with my wife. Headed out, countless first responders + emergency vehicles were going in #Branson to help with the #DuckBoat incident. Branson Belle crew helped toss life preservers to those overboard. pic.twitter.com/71H61ir0Gy
Lester's boyfriend, Trent Behr, said they saw a woman in the water and helped to pull her into the boat. He said he was about to start CPR when an EMT arrived and took over.
Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader urged anyone with video or photos of the accident to contact authorities.
Divers quickly located the vessel, which came to rest on its wheels on the lakebed, and authorities planned to recover it later Friday.
The boat sank in 12 metres of water and then rolled on its wheels into a deeper area with 25 metres of water. Investigators had no information about whether passengers were wearing life jackets or whether they were stowed onboard, the sheriff said.
The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to help with the investigation.
Branson, about 320 kilometres southeast of Kansas City, is a country-themed tourist mecca built on a reputation for patriotic and religious-themed shows in numerous theaters.
Table Rock Lake, east of Branson, was created in the late 1950s when the Corps of Army Engineers built a dam across the White River to provide hydroelectric power to the Ozarks.
