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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/divers-hunt-for-4-people-after-missouri-duck-boat-sinks-killing-13

Death toll from Missouri duck boat accident climbs to 17

BRANSON, Mo. — Divers found four more bodies Friday in a Missouri lake where a duck boat packed with tourists capsized and sank in high winds, bringing the death toll to 17 in the country-and-western town of Branson, authorities said.

Investigators blamed stormy weather for the accident Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake. Winds at the time were blowing as hard as 65 mph (105 kph), according to the National Weather Service.

The boat was carrying 29 passengers and two crew members on a pleasure cruise, and authorities said everyone aboard had been accounted for. Seven of the 14 survivors were hurt when the vessel went down. At least two were hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.

The crew member who was operating the boat died, but the captain survived, authorities said.

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.

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 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.”

A severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for Branson at 6:32 p.m. Thursday, about 40 minutes before the boat tipped over.

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.

Investigators from the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board were to investigate. Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader urged anyone with video or photos of the accident to contact authorities.

Divers 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 40 feet (12 meters) of water and then rolled on its wheels into a deeper area with 80 feet (25 meters) of water. Investigators had no information about whether passengers were wearing life jackets or whether they were stowed onboard, the sheriff said.

The names of the dead were not immediately released.

An off-duty deputy working security for the boat company helped rescue people after the boat turned over, the sheriff said. Dive teams from several law enforcement agencies assisted in the effort.

Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, said the company was assisting authorities. She said this was the ride’s only accident in more than 40 years of operation.

Weather can change rapidly in this part of the country, moving from sunshine and calm to dangerous storms within minutes, weather service meteorologist Jason Schaumann said.

“Tornado warnings get a lot of publicity, and severe thunderstorm warnings should be taken very seriously too, particularly if you are in a vulnerable area like a lake or campground,” he said.

President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences, extending his “deepest sympathies” to the families and friends of those involved.

My deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved in the terrible boat accident which just took place in Missouri. Such a tragedy, such a great loss. May God be with you all! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2018

Branson, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) 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.

Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Louis; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

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Politics Jul 19

• Nation & World

‘It was a nightmare’: Witnesses recount deadly sinking of duck boat in Missouri

The tourist boat, carrying 31 people, sank in a storm that hit with shocking ferocity, raising new concerns about the safety of these kinds of boats. Officials said at least 17 people were killed.

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BRANSON, Mo. — The image from Table Rock Lake that onlookers say they will never forget is the heads, one after another, bobbing in the wild, darkened water.

One would pop up and then disappear. There were so many of them amid the pounding waves — there one moment, and then gone.

As a Ride the Ducks boat packed with tourists capsized during a fierce storm in a popular summertime region of southern Missouri, Table Rock Lake was transformed into a site where people struggled for survival. Fishermen and other tourists in passing boats and on docks tried to pull people up, and some tried to administer CPR. People raced to throw life jackets out, but the wind seemed to toss the jackets back.

“It was a nightmare,” said Ron Folsom, a tourist from Fort Smith, Arkansas, who said he was on a dock along with dozens of other stunned onlookers. With all the wind, he said, “all you could hear was squeals and screams and hollering.”

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Seventeen people were killed in the accident Thursday evening near Branson, and seven of the 14 survivors, including three children, were taken to hospitals. Officials said the victims ranged in age from 1 to 70. It was one of the deadliest accidents involving a duck boat — modeled after the amphibious trucks used in World War II to move along land and water — in U.S. history.

Nine of those who died were members of a family from Indianapolis who had traveled to Branson for their annual road trip, according to Carolyn Coleman, who said two of her brothers-in-law were among the dead. Two other relatives on the boat survived, she said.

She said members of three generations of the family died, including four young children. “We just lost some wonderful people,” Coleman said.

“Branson is a city full of smiles,” Mayor Karen Best said. “We have so much fun here. But today we are grieving and crying.”

Trisha Ayers was among the mourners who stopped to pay respects at a parked car that was covered with flowers because it was believed to belong to a dead tourist. Ayers said she understood how the boat got caught on the lake because the weather on Thursday evening changed in 10 minutes from sunshine to gale-force winds that bent traffic signs.

“I hope it won’t tarnish Branson,” she said with tears in her eyes. “About 80 percent of our income comes from tourists. We love them.”

Wind warning issued

In their initial assessment, authorities blamed thunderstorms and winds that approached hurricane strength.

The risk of heavy weather was apparent hours before the boat left shore.

The weather service station in Springfield, about 40 miles north of Branson, issued a severe-thunderstorm watch for its immediate area Thursday, saying conditions were ripe for winds of 70 mph.

It followed up at 6:32 p.m. 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 7 p.m.

“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.

Twenty-nine passengers and two crew members were aboard for a pleasure cruise. Seven of the 14 survivors were hurt when the vessel went down. At least two children and two adults were still hospitalized Friday afternoon. The boat’s captain, who had 16 years of experience on the lake, survived and was taken to a hospital, but authorities said the other crew member, whose job was to drive the vehicle when it moved onto land, died.

Brayden Malaske, of Harrah, Oklahoma, 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 water 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 the deck of the Belle, 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.

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.

Authorities did not publicly identify the dead Friday.

A survivor from the Indiana family that lost nine relatives said the captain told passengers not to bother grabbing life jackets.

Tia Coleman told Indianapolis television station WXIN that she and a nephew were the only survivors among 11 relatives aboard the boat. She said she lost all her children. Coleman said the captain told passengers they would not need life jackets. By the time of the accident, “it was too late.”

Online videos of Branson duck-boat tours from recent years show life jackets stowed beneath the roof of the boats, within arm’s reach of an adult. But few if any patrons were wearing them on those trips.

The Coast Guard requires life jackets to be available for each passenger on a boat, including duck boats, but allows the crew to decide when to instruct passengers to put them on.

Jim Pattison Jr., the president of Ripley Entertainment, which acquired the Ride the Ducks attraction in Branson last year, said the boats were always stocked with life jackets, but that people were not required to wear them.

In an interview, Pattison said the company had policies in place to keep boats off the water during dangerous weather, but he was unsure of the exact threshold for aborting a tour. “I was told that it was calm” when the boat went out on the water, Pattison said. He said the boats typically spend 15 to 20 minutes in the water on a circular route on Table Rock Lake.

“This is a real tragedy, and we can’t say enough about how devastated we are,” Pattison said. “It’s hard to think about.”

Two duck boats were on the lake Thursday evening, and both were returning to land at the time of the accident. “The first one made it out, and the second one didn’t,” Sheriff Doug Rader of Stone County said.

A full investigation is under way, with help from the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Divers quickly located the sunken vessel, which came to rest on its wheels on the lake bed. Authorities planned to recover it at some point in the next few days.

The boat sank in 40 feet water and then rolled on its wheels into a deeper area with 80 feet of water.

Mixed safety record

The accident raised new concerns about the safety of the boats modeled after DUKWs, which brought materials ashore during the invasion of Normandy and hauled howitzers during the landings in Iwo Jima. In the decades since, duck vehicles have been used to transport tourists in places like Seattle, Philadelphia, the Wisconsin Dells and Branson.

Such boats have had mixed safety records over the years, on water and land.

In 2015, a duck boat collided with a bus on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle , killing five college students. The Missouri-based vehicle manufacturer paid $1 million in civil fines.

On land, pedestrians and a motorist were killed in recent years in accidents involving the vehicles in Philadelphia and Boston.

In Philadelphia in 2010, a duck boat that stalled in the Delaware River was struck by a barge being towed by a tugboat, killing two people.

After 13 people were killed when a duck boat sank in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in May 1999, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had called for sweeping changes to the way such tourist boats operate. The victims on the Arkansas boat drowned after they became trapped beneath the boat’s heavy canopy as the vessel took on water and sank in 60 feet of water, the NTSB found.

“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.”

Critics say duck boats have avoided tougher safety requirements, in part because oversight for them is divided among various entities, including the Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the various state and city governments where the boats operate.

In Branson, 70-minute rides take visitors past notable sights along city streets before plunging into Table Rock Lake. The rides are popular with children, who receive yellow duck whistles that make a quacking noise. The boats have long been a fixture of Branson itineraries, along with Dolly Parton’s Stampede dinner show and roller coasters at the Silver Dollar City amusement park.

According to an archived version of the tour company’s website, the duck boats include “modern safety equipment” and “patented safety features that no other DUKW-style vehicle has.”

“So, relax and enjoy this unique experience,” the website said.

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.

Dock hands rushed to help

On Thursday, Curt Elleman, a tourist from Overland Park, Kansas, was walking along the shoreline of the lake when the weather turned stormy. He saw two duck boats making their way through the waves. One began sinking.

“It started taking on water on the right rear,” he said. “And it just kept getting heavier and heavier.”

Panicked, people tried to help. Someone on a private pontoon boat pulled up a lifeless body and raced to shore.

“It’s tragic and horrific to watch something like that,” Elleman said. “When you’re standing on land and something’s happening in the water, there’s not a lot that you can do.”

Dock hands at a nearby marina rushed into the stormy waters after their manager said people needed help.

Todd Lawrence, 20, donned a life vest and hopped into a 24-foot tritoon, a type of pontoon boat, with three others, and they set off on water that was rougher than he had ever experienced on Table Rock Lake, which he has boated since he was a toddler growing up in Branson. What he found around the bend in the lake was grim. He and his colleagues pulled an unconscious man from the water and tried to revive him. None of the people he or his co-workers pulled into boats were wearing life jackets.

“I don’t want to say 100 percent, but it’s really hard to drown with a life jacket,” he said, pausing as he stared silently at the ground.

Duck Boat Tragedy: Four years since ‘Ride the Ducks’ boat capsized on Table Rock Lake

BRANSON, Mo. (KY3) - Tuesday marks four years since a Ride the Ducks boat on Table Rock Lake capsized during a storm, sinking and killing 17 people on board.

On July 19, 2018, a Stretch Duck 7 duck boat with 31 people on board capsized and sank in stormy weather near Branson, Missouri.

Sixteen passengers, including nine from the same family and one crew member driving the boat, drowned that night, leading to one of the deadliest boating accidents in United States history.

In their initial assessment, authorities blamed thunderstorms and winds that approached hurricane strength. The duck boat sank under high waves while winds around the area reached up to 70 miles per hour that day.

Investigators say Ride the Ducks had plenty of warning about the severe weather, but the boat still launched more than 20 minutes after a thunderstorm warning was issued for Table Rock Lake.

THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Four years later, people are still pushing for answers and working to come to terms with what happened.

On April 7, the Missouri Attorney General and Stone County Prosecutor refiled 63 criminal charges against three employees on duty when tragedy struck. Captain Kenneth Scott McKee and two supervisors, Curtis Lanham and Charles Baltzell, all face a slate of felonies that include at least 17 criminal charges each.

This decision came just two days after Stone County Judge Alan Blankenship dismissed 63 state-based charges initially filed against McKee, Lanham and Baltzell last year. When the charges were dismissed on April 5, Judge Blankenship ruled the unique characteristics of the boat led to it rapidly sinking. He also said the staff was aware of the storm, but there is no evidence they were aware of the storm’s “gust front.”

As part of the latest court proceedings, Captain McKee faces 17 involuntary manslaughter charges and 12 endangering the welfare of a child-death of a child charges. Lanham and Baltzell each face 17 involuntary manslaughter charges.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt released this statement to KY3 News on the new charges on April 7:

“As I’ve said previously, my office is committed to fighting for justice on behalf of the 17 people that were tragically killed in 2018 - that’s why we refiled the charges in this case.”

Schmitt released this statement last year when his office first filed charges:

“There was a severe weather event already taking place. Based on his training and experience, he should have never gone in the water that day. There were also folks, the GM and the operations officer, who should have known better too, and the consequences here were incredibly tragic.”

Last year, Missouri U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley reintroduced federal legislation to improve the safety of duck boats. The bill would require the use of life jackets and equipping all duck boats to be more buoyant during emergency flooding.

“These common-sense safety measures, which are long overdue and need to go into effect immediately, will help prevent an incident like this from ever happening again,” said Sen. Blunt.

The U.S. Senate passed the bill during its latest go-around, but the legislation did not make it through the House.

REMEMBERING THE TRAGEDY

For emergency responders, the scene that unfolded at Table Rock Lake remains vivid in their minds.

“Huge waves coming in, hitting that rock face and just going up that rock face. I’m just like ‘Wow.’ I’m like ‘I can see why a duck boat sank,’” said Mike Moore, Southern Stone County Fire Protection District Deputy Chief.

“It was chaos,” Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said. “One of the hardest things in the first 20 minutes there was trying to grasp ‘Where [are] all 30 of our people that were on this duck?’ It took a while to understand that they’d drown.”

Fire crews, police officers, paramedics, and state troopers flooded to the docking area of the Showboat Branson Belle, where the Ride the Ducks boat was supposed to get back on land. The boat capsized nearly 150 feet from that location.

“In almost 30 years of law enforcement, that was probably one of the most traumatic events I have been involved in,” said Rader. ” I had a deputy on [the Belle] who jumped in and helped save people and dragged the deceased out of the water. He’ll forever be affected by that. The emotional impact it made on everyone in this area, that tragedy will never be forgotten.”

Tia Coleman and her nephew are among the survivors, but she lost several family members in the accident.

“Keep us in prayer. We’re going to need it,” said Coleman days after the tragedy.

Attorneys for Coleman say she was disappointed when federal charges against the captain and attraction supervisors were dismissed last year, but she has renewed hope that the new charges filed by the state will bring justice for her and all the families impacted by the tragedy.

RESEARCH AND FINDINGS

Duck boats, like the one that capsized near Branson, 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 for tours that begin on land before going into the water.

In November 2019, the National Transportation Safety Board released a “Safety Recommendation Report” on the accident. The report mentions that the U.S. Coast Guard had repeatedly ignored safety recommendations that could have made tourist duck boats safer and potentially prevented the tragedy.

CLICK HERE for the NTSB Safety Recommendation Report

The report is similar to one issued in 1999 after a deadly accident involving an amphibious vehicle in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Thirteen people were killed in that accident.

According to the report, the NTSB repeatedly urged the Coast Guard to require upgrades for the boats to stay afloat when flooded and to remove barriers to escape, such as canopies. The report found that a fixed canopy and closed side curtain impeded passenger to escape, likely causing more deaths.

“Lives could have been saved, and the Stretch Duck 7 accident could have been prevented had previously issued safety recommendations been implemented,” said NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt in a November 2019 statement.

The NTSB says it recommended changes to 30 duck boat operators several years ago, but only one has made the recommended improvements.

In April 2020, the NTSB released findings of its investigation into the sinking of the Ride the Ducks vessel. Following the investigation, the Coast Guard agreed that canopies and side curtains should be removed from the duck boats, according to documents.

A lieutenant says the Coast Guard issued guidance in 2000, after an NTSB recommendation, urging inspectors and vessel owners to evaluate canopy design and installation. The guidance also recommended inspections of the design, sets, deck rails, windshields and windows “to ensure the overall arrangement did not restrict the ability of passengers to escape.”

An unrelated internal investigation performed by the National Weather Service found that local meteorologists followed the procedure necessary to ensure public safety on the night the duck boat capsized.

LOOKING BACK AND AHEAD

Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney for survivor Tia Coleman, hopes the recommendations handed down by the NTSB in 2019 will finally be adopted by the Coast Guard.

“It is rare for one federal agency to really go after another. I was struck by how strongly the NTSB indicated that the Coast Guard just had not done the job they were supposed to do, which is protecting passengers and making safety first,” said Mongeluzzi.

Mongeluzzi says he and Coleman plan to meet with Coast Guard officials in the future to lobby for stricter laws and regulations.

“It was a very frustrating and emotional day for Tia Coleman,” said Mongeluzzi. “Her family would be alive if the duck boat industry had done their job and if the Coast Guard had done their job. Both of them have the blood of 17 victims here and two in Philadelphia on their hands.”

Ripley Entertainment, Inc., the company that operated duck boat rides in Branson, has settled 31 lawsuits filed on behalf of victims of the accident. The final lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount in January 2020.

Ride The Ducks, however, has not operated in Branson since the tragedy four years ago.

ORIGINAL COVERAGE:

July 20, 2018

Branson mourns for 17 killed in sinking of packed duck boat

RELATED COVERAGE:

April 7, 2022

Charges refiled in Branson duck boat tragedy as the U.S. Senate considers bill calling for safety improvements

April 5, 2022

Judge dismisses state charges against 3 Ride the Ducks employees in 2018

March 22, 2022

Duck Boat rides returning to Branson for summer season

Dec. 8, 2021

Stone County judge to decide in March if criminal case filed in Duck Boat tragedy will proceed

July 16, 2021

Stone Co. prosecutor, Missouri attorney general files 63 new charges against 3 in Ride the Ducks tragedy

January 28, 2021

Senators Blunt, Hawley reintroduce duck boat safety legislation

January 8, 2021

Man planning new Branson duck boat tour business details safety measures

April 28, 2020

Attorney for duck boat tragedy survivor, Tia Coleman, says she’s focused on change

November 13, 2019

NTSB: Coast Guard ignored duck boat safety proposals

July 19, 2019

First responders recall the duck boat tragedy, one year later

July 17, 2019

A year after tragedy, city of Branson debates future of duck boats

Copyright 2020 KY3. All rights reserved.

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Missouri Duck Boat Accident Kills 17, Including 9 From Same Family

17 killed in duck boat accident in missouri, a duck boat with 31 people on board capsized and sank to the bottom of table rock lake during a severe thunderstorm on thursday, resulting in one of the deadliest duck boat accidents in american history..

“There was actually a Stone County sheriff’s deputy on the boat. He was in the water rescuing people. There was also some of the staff from Branson Belle, I believe, trying to help rescue.”

By John Eligon Timothy Williams Mitch Smith and Karen Zraick

• July 20, 2018

BRANSON, Mo. — The image from Table Rock Lake that onlookers say they will never forget is the heads, one after another, bobbing in the wild, darkened water.

One would pop up on the surface and then disappear. There were so many of them amid the pounding waves — there one moment, and then gone.

As a boat packed with tourists capsized during a fierce storm in a popular summertime region of southern Missouri, Table Rock Lake was transformed into a desperate struggle for survival. Fishermen and other tourists in passing boats and on docks tried to pull people up, and some tried to administer C.P.R. People raced to throw life jackets out, but the unstopping wind seemed to toss the jackets back.

“It was a nightmare,” said Ron Folsom, a tourist from Fort Smith, Ark., who said he was on a dock along with dozens of other stunned onlookers. With all the wind, he said, “all you could hear was squeals and screams and hollering.”

Seventeen people were killed in the accident on Thursday evening , and seven others, including three children, were taken to hospitals. Officials said that the victims ranged in age from 1 to 76. It was one of the deadliest accidents involving a duck boat — modeled after the amphibious trucks used in World War II to move along land and water — in United States history.

Nine of those who died were members of a family from Indianapolis who had traveled to Branson for their annual road trip, according to Carolyn Coleman, who said two of her brothers-in-law were among the deceased. Two other family members on the boat survived, she said.

Ms. Coleman said the family had rented a van and driven from Indiana to Missouri earlier in the week. She said members of three generations of the family died, including four young children. “We just lost some wonderful people,” Ms. Coleman said.

Around Branson, a showy city that draws throngs of tourists to the Midwest, residents said the storm had come up suddenly on Thursday evening, only a short time after weather officials had issued warnings, and with a shocking ferocity.

“The wind picked up, they gave the storm warning,” said Michael Homan, a resident, “and then massive, straight line winds came out of nowhere.”

As the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard began investigations, the accident was raising new concerns about the safety of duck boats and about whether tourists should be passengers on them. After 13 people were killed when a duck boat sank in Hot Springs, Ark., in May 1999, the N.T.S.B. had called for sweeping changes to the way such tourist boats operate and are regulated. Once the boats take on too much water, the N.T.S.B. found at the time, they have a hard time staying afloat.

On Thursday evening, storms swept through the Midwest. Tornadoes damaged communities in Iowa. And in Branson, as a storm arrived, two duck boats were on Table Rock Lake, and both were returning to land at the time of the accident. “The first one made it out, and the second one didn’t,” Sheriff Doug Rader of Stone County said.

The National Weather Service’s office in Springfield, Mo., issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 6:32 p.m. for southern Missouri, including Table Rock Lake, about 35 minutes before the authorities received the first calls about the sinking of the boat. Weather officials said the storm entered the area with wind gusts up to 75 m.p.h., which were followed by heavy rain and lightning.

“We knew there was going to be the potential for severe weather and knew that in advance,” Jeff Raberding, a weather service meteorologist, said.

The boat that sank had life jackets, but the sheriff said he did not know if people were wearing them. Of the 31 people on board, 29 were passengers and two were crew members. The boat’s captain, who had 16 years of experience on the lake, survived and was taken to a hospital, but the authorities said the other crew member, whose job was to drive the vehicle when it moved onto land, died.

Online videos of Branson duck boat tours from recent years show life jackets stowed beneath the roof of the boats, within arm’s reach of an adult. But few if any patrons were wearing them on those trips.

The Coast Guard requires life jackets to be available for each passenger on a boat, including duck boats, but allows the crew to decide when to instruct passengers to put them on.

Jim Pattison Jr., the president of Ripley Entertainment, which acquired the Ride the Ducks attraction in Branson last year, said the boats were always stocked with life jackets, but that people were not required to wear them. The weather was calm when the boat left the dock on Thursday. Mr. Pattison said this was the first such accident at Ride the Ducks, which was started more than 40 years ago.

In an interview, Mr. Pattison said the company had policies in place to keep boats off the water during dangerous weather, but he was unsure of the exact threshold for aborting a tour. “I was told that it was calm” when the boat went out on the water, Mr. Pattison said. He said the boats typically spend 15 to 20 minutes in the water on a circular route through Table Rock Lake.

“This is a real tragedy, and we can’t say enough about how devastated we are,” Mr. Pattison said. “It’s hard to think about.”

Duck boats are modeled after DUKWs, which brought materials ashore during the invasion of Normandy and hauled howitzers during the landings in Iwo Jima. In the decades since, duck vehicles have been used to transport tourists in places like Philadelphia, the Wisconsin Dells and Branson.

Such boats have had mixed safety records over the years, both on water and land. In Philadelphia in 2010, a duck boat that stalled in the Delaware River was struck by a barge being towed by a tugboat, killing two people. On land, pedestrians and a motorist were killed in recent years in accidents involving the vehicles in Philadelphia and Boston. In 2015, a duck boat collided with a bus in Seattle, killing five people.

Critics say duck boats have avoided tougher safety requirements, in part because oversight for them is divided among various entities, including the Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the various state and city governments where the boats operate.

Before Thursday’s accident, the deadliest event involving a duck boat was the 1999 accident in Arkansas, when the Miss Majestic sank to the bottom of Lake Hamilton. The N.T.S.B. cited inadequate maintenance as the cause and ordered duck boat operators nationwide, including the company in Branson, to outfit their vessels with additional flotation devices to help prevent sinking.

The victims on the Miss Majestic drowned after they became trapped beneath the boat’s heavy canopy as the vessel took on water and eventually sank in 60 feet of water, the N.T.S.B. found.

The N.T.S.B. investigation found that the United States Coast Guard had failed to follow its own rules regulating the vessels. The agency’s report said that the Coast Guard had generally displayed a “lack of adequate oversight” and that its inspection of the vessel had been “inadequate and cursory.”

The likely reason for that sinking, according to the N.T.S.B., was that the vessel’s owner, Land and Lakes Tours, had failed to maintain the boat. The safety board also found that duck boats converted for passenger service lacked adequate buoyancy to stay afloat once they began to flood.

It issued a stern warning to operators of duck boats to fix the problem: “Without delay, alter your amphibious passenger vessels to provide reserve buoyance through passive means, such as watertight compartmentalization, built-in flotation, or equivalent measures, so that they will remain afloat and upright in the event of flooding, even when carrying a full complement of passengers and crew.”

It is not clear whether duck boat operators complied, and the Coast Guard, which regulates duck boats, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

In Branson, 70-minute rides take visitors past notable sights along city streets before plunging into Table Rock Lake. The rides are popular with children, who receive yellow duck whistles that make a quacking noise, and have long been a fixture of Branson itineraries, along with the Dolly Parton’s Stampede dinner show and roller coasters at the Silver Dollar City amusement park.

According to an archived version of the tour company’s website, the duck boats include “modern safety equipment” and “patented safety features that no other DUKW-style vehicle has.”

“So, relax and enjoy this unique experience,” the website said.

On Thursday, Curt Elleman, a tourist from Overland Park, Kan., was walking along the shoreline of the lake when the weather turned stormy. He saw two duck boats making their way through the waves. One began sinking.

“It started taking on water on the right rear,” he said. “And it just kept getting heavier and heavier.”

Panicked, people tried to help. Someone on a private pontoon boat pulled up a lifeless body, and raced to shore.

“It’s tragic and horrific to watch something like that,” Mr. Elleman said. “When you’re standing on land and something’s happening in the water, there’s not a lot that you can do.”

Around a bend in the lake, dock hands at a nearby marina rushed into the stormy waters after their manager said people needed help.

Todd Lawrence, 20, donned a life vest and hopped into a 24-foot tritoon with three other workers, and they set off on water that was rougher than he had ever experienced on Table Rock Lake, which he has boated since he was a toddler growing up in Branson. What he found around the bend in the lake was grim. He and his colleagues pulled an unconscious man from the water and tried to revive him. None of the people he or his co-workers pulled into boats were wearing life jackets.

“I don’t want to say 100 percent, but it’s really hard to drown with a life jacket,” he said, pausing as he stared silently at the ground.

John Eligon reported from Branson, Mo.; Timothy Williams and Mitch Smith from Chicago; and Karen Zraick from New York. Jacey Fortin, Julia Jacobs, Matthew Haag, Susan C. Beachy, Gabe Cohn and Matt Stevens contributed reporting from New York. Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

9 family members among the 17 dead in Missouri duck boat accident

Severe thunderstorms struck the area at the time of the Thursday night accident.

Nine people in one family were among the 17 killed when a tourist duck boat capsized in a Missouri lake Thursday night, the governor's office said. Two other members of that family survived.

Twenty-nine passengers and two crew members were on board the amphibious craft when it plunged into 80 feet of water in Table Rock Lake near Branson as severe thunderstorms struck the area, officials said. The boat landed upright on its wheels, Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said.

Children were among the 17 killed, officials said. Seven others were injured, one seriously, the governor's office said. The ages of the victims range from 1 to 76 years old, according to the sheriff's office.

Belinda Coleman, Glenn Coleman, Horace "Butch" Coleman, Irvin Raymond Coleman, Angela Coleman, Evan Coleman, Reece Coleman, Maxwell Coleman and Arya Coleman all perished in the tragedy, a family member told ABC News.

Six patients were admitted to the Cox Medical Center Branson, hospital officials said in a press conference Friday afternoon. Two adults are in critical condition, and two children are in stable condition, officials said. One child and one adult have been released.

It appeared there were life jackets on board, Rader said, but it was not yet clear how many people were wearing them.

The captain survived, while the driver did not.

A survivor of the tragedy, who lost nine of her family members in the accident, says the captain of the boat told her family not to worry about life jackets, Fox affiliate WXIN reported .

"My husband would want me to say this -- he would want the world to know that on this boat we were on, the captain had told us 'don't worry about grabbing the life jackets -- you won't need them' so nobody grabbed them as we listened to the captain as he told us to stay seated," Tia Coleman said.

Tia Coleman also spoke to CBS affiliate KOLR from her hospital bed, telling them she lost her husband and all three of her children: Reece, Evan and Arya.

"I couldn't hear screams, it felt like I was out there on my own," Tia Coleman said. "And I was yelling, screaming and finally, I said, 'Lord, just let me die, let me die, I can't keep drowning, I just can't keep drowning.' And then I just let go."

A rescue boat ended up throwing her a life jacket and she was pulled aboard. Her 13-year-old nephew was the only other person from the family to survive, she told KOLR.

ABC News reached out to Ripley Entertainment, which owns the duck boat company, but they did not immediately respond.

An investigation is now underway.

The personal flotation devices, and whether they were worn, will "definitely be a focus of the investigation and certainly one of the questions we will be looking to ask," U.S. Coast Guard Captain Scott Stoermer said at a press conference Friday night.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which arrived at the scene Friday afternoon, said they are working to interview survivors as well as gather physical evidence. Some of the evidence will be taken back to Washington, D.C., for further analysis, according to an NTSB representative.

"We'll be working arduously to determine what happened, why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again," NTSB member Earl Weener said Friday.

Officials intent to try and salvage the vessel and are working with the owner, NTSB and experts in naval architecture to have a proper salvage plan in place. That will happen in the coming days, according to the USCG.

Counselors are on-hand to help survivors cope and also just be there for the "little things," she said. One counselor took a survivor with wet socks to the bathroom to help him dry them out, she said.

"While they're investigating, the thing to do is we're keeping our focus on the families, and once again keeping them in our thoughts and our prayers," Best said. "We're very resilient."

(MORE: A look back at past deadly duck tour incidents)

(more: how the missouri duck boat capsize unfolded amid weather warnings).

Severe evening thunderstorms, including winds in excess of 60 mph, struck the area at the time of the deadly crash. Eyewitness video showed the craft, which travels on land and water, taking on water as waves lashed at its sides.

Tony Burkhart posted a video on Twitter showing the stormy conditions on the lake before the boat capsized. He said he and his wife decided not to take the tour because of the weather.

Allison Lester, who was on a nearby boat, told "Good Morning America” Friday that the waters "were rough.”

"The wind really picked up bad and debris was flying everywhere,” she said.

Lester's boyfriend, Trent Behr, added: "We actually heard the captain say the boat flipped or the boat was sinking.”

Behr said he saw a woman lying in the water.

"We eventually did pull her up onto the boat," Behr said. "She was unconscious. I was about ready to start CPR and the EMT did show up at that time."

Suzanne Smagala-Potts of Ride the Ducks Branson, the company involved in the accident, said in a statement, "We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident."

"This incident has deeply affected all of us," Smagala-Potts said. "We will continue to do all we can to assist the families who were involved and the authorities as they continue with the search and rescue. The safety of our guests and employees is our number one priority."

“What happened here last night was a heart-breaking tragedy, and we must all work together to support the victims and their families,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement Friday. “The courageous efforts of emergency responders and civilian rescuers helped avert an even worse tragedy, as people rushed to help in extremely dangerous conditions. I was inspired by the stories I heard from some of those who were part of the rescue effort and tremendously encouraged by the strength of the family members of victims I met with today. We pray for all those who were affected by this terrible tragedy.”

President Trump and the First Lady "extend their deepest sympathies to all those affected by yesterday’s boating accident on Table Rock Lake," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Friday. "Our prayers are with the victims and their loved ones. We are thankful for the brave first responders and dive crews, whose quick and decisive actions have saved many lives, and we continue to pray for their safety as their search, rescue, and recovery operations continue."

“Since the incident occurred, the Administration has been in contact with Governor Parson and other State and local officials, and the President will continue to monitor and receive regular updates on the situation,” the statement added.

President Trump also expressed his condolences for the victims Friday morning on Twitter.

"My deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved in the terrible boat accident which just took place in Missouri," President Trump said in a tweet. "Such a tragedy, such a great loss. May God be with you all!"

ABC News' Victor Oquendo, Scott Withers, Will Gretsky, Whitney Lloyd and Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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17 Dead: The Latest on the ‘Terrible Tragedy’ of the Branson Duck Boat Sinking

S eventeen people are dead after an amphibious duck boat with tourists on board sank in a heavy storm near Branson, Missouri on Thursday.

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the death toll on Friday morning after a dive team concluded recovery efforts to find four missing bodies.

The boat, from Ride the Ducks Branson, was one of two vessels caught in a heavy storm that rolled into the area about 7 p.m. local time. Videos posted on local media showed two boats struggling to make it to shore on Table Rock Lake amid heavy windy and choppy waters.

There were 31 people – 29 passengers and two crew members – aboard the capsized boat, according to the Stone County Sheriff’s Office. At a press conference Friday morning, Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said the driver of the duck boat died in the accident, but the boat’s captain was among the survivors. He said an off-duty sheriff’s deputy working on security for the nearby Branson Belle riverboat in Table Rock Lake helped to rescue people in the water after the accident.

“It’s been a long night and a very trying night,” Rader said.

Seventeen people have been confirmed dead, including children. Fourteen survived, with seven taken to hospital. Those who died ranged in age from 1 to 70 years old, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jason Pace.

Rader said Friday morning that he did not have more information about whether the boat operators had checked the weather forecast before leaving shore or whether passengers had been wearing life jackets on board.

The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to investigate the cause of the accident.

“Right now, it’s just a time for thoughts and prayers. There’s a lot of healing that has to take place right now,” Missouri Governor Mike Parson said at Friday’s press conference. “All those details will come in time, but for right now, it’s about really trying to protect the families, to unite the families and to deal with the situation they’re in. I think that’s the most important thing.”

WOW - video captures duck tour boat sinking in Missouri w/31 people on board. 11 people are dead, including children, 5 people are still missing in the lake and 7 are in the hospital. You can see there was terrible weather. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued 30 mins before. pic.twitter.com/w8T17pE37B — Erica Rakow (@EricaRakow) July 20, 2018

Who are the victims of the duck boat accident?

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released the names of the 17 victims. They include nine members of the same family , a couple from St. Louis , a couple from Higginsville , a father and son from Arkansas and a grandmother who died saving her granddaughter , according to local media reports. The boat’s driver, Bob Williams , was also among the deceased.

Why did the duck boat sink?

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader attributed the sinking to heavy winds.

The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Branson area Thursday evening. Wind speeds reached 60 mph, a weather service meteorologist in Springfield told the Associated Press.

“They were coming back to land. There were actually two ducks. The first one made it out and the second one didn’t,” Rader said at a press conference Thursday night.

Video posted to the Springfield News-Leader showed the two boats struggling to make it to shore in heavy wind and waves. Onlooker Jennie P. Carr, who was on the Branson Belle Showboat as people had dinner, recorded footage of the boat’s nose sinking below the water. The camera turned away before the boat sank.

“It got closer to us on the Showboat and you could see water going into the boat. I did see he was starting to sink. It was leaning to the right,” she told the newspaper.

She said the boat was out of sight when it sank.

What is the duck boat operator saying?

On Friday morning the operators’ website was replaced by an image of a black ribbon, with a statement reading: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident that occurred at Ride The Ducks Branson. This incident has deeply affected all of us. Words cannot convey how profoundly our hearts are breaking.”

It continued, “We will continue to do all we can to assist the families who were involved and the authorities as they continue with the search and rescue. The safety of our guests and employees is our number one priority. Ride the Ducks will be closed for business while we support the investigation, and to allow time to grieve for the families and the community.”

“Thank you for your support, and we ask that your thoughts and prayers be with the families during this time.”

Have there been other fatal duck boat accidents?

In 1999, a duck boat on Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, sank, drowning 13 of its 21 passengers. After that incident, the National Transportation Safety Board said the roof canopy of the boat was to blame, after finding four of the victims pinned against the roof at the bottom of the lake. Three more were also trapped inside the boat.

In 2015, a duck boat collided with a charter bus on a bridge in Seattle, killing five people and injuring 69. And in 2016, a duck boat in Boston struck and killed a motorist , sparking a debate over the vessels’ safety.

What is a duck boat?

A duck boat is the colloquial name for an amphibious vehicle that can operate on land and in the water. The vehicles are based off a military design first used during World War II. They are now a common vehicle in lake tours around the world.

Ride The Ducks Branson was acquired by entertainment giant Ripley in December 2017.

How are officials responding?

Missouri Governor Mike Parson ordered all flags at government offices in the state to be flown at half-staff for a week to honor the victims of the boating accident.

Very sad to hear about this horrible accident - prayers for all those involved and the first responders who are assisting. https://t.co/PQ56zagc0s — Governor Mike Parson (@GovParsonMO) July 20, 2018

President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the victims of the accident, saying “My deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved in the terrible boat accident which just took place in Missouri. Such a tragedy, such a great loss. May God be with you all!”

My deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved in the terrible boat accident which just took place in Missouri. Such a tragedy, such a great loss. May God be with you all! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2018

Tragedy here in Missouri this evening. Heavy hearts for the families of those who have died and are hurt. And as always sincere thanks to the first responders. https://t.co/RrASkl0fcU — Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) July 20, 2018

Deeply saddened by the tragedy at Table Rock Lake. My prayers are with the families and friends who lost their loved ones. Thank you to the first responders who are assisting. — Senator Roy Blunt (@RoyBlunt) July 20, 2018

Terrible tragedy on Table Rock Lake last night. Erin and I are praying for the families involved and for the missing. My office ready to assist law enforcement as needed in investigation. https://t.co/KM0XaR541z — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 20, 2018

Just spoke with Gov. Mike Parson of Missouri about the tragic loss of life in Branson from the boat incident. I am grateful for the divers at work and our heart goes out to the families. Arkansas stands ready to help. — Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) July 20, 2018

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Missouri duck boat accident leaves 17 dead, including 9 family members

Updated on: July 21, 2018 / 12:44 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Nine of the 17 people who died in a duck boat accident  were from the same family, a spokesperson for Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Friday. Another two members of the same family survived when the boat capsized on Table Rock Lake near the tourist town of Branson, the spokesperson said. 

Tia Coleman told CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV that she and 10 family members were on board, and only she and her 13-year-old nephew survived.  "My heart is very heavy ... I lost all my children," she said. 

Coleman said the captain of the boat told them "don't worry about grabbing the life jackets – you won't need them," so none of the family members grabbed them.

"However in doing that, when it was time to grab them, it was too late and I believe that a lot of people could have been spared," Coleman said.

She says there's not much that can be done.

"The only thing that I would like to be done but can't, is to bring my family back," Coleman said.

She described her ordeal to CBS Springfield, Missouri, affiliate KOLR , saying she "couldn't see anybody, I couldn't hear anything."

"I couldn't hear screams, it felt like I was out there on my own," Coleman said. 

"I was yelling. I was screaming," she said. "And finally I said, 'Lord, just let me die, let me die. ... I can't keep drowning, I just can't keep drowning.' And then I just let go."  

Coleman said her sister-in-law was there "with her 13-year-old, soon to be 3-year-old, I was there, with my husband and our three children, who were 9, 7, and 1. My in-laws were there, my mother-in-law and my father-in-law and the uncle that lives with them."

Coleman said the captain took over the boat, and the big swells of water started coming over. "A really huge wave swept over and when that wave swept over, the last thing I heard my sister-in-law say was 'grab the baby,'" Coleman told KOLR.

Coleman said that's when the boat started sinking, and she tried to swim. 

"My head pushed up to the top of the water and I lost control, I didn't have anybody with me," Coleman said. "I couldn't see anybody. And I know it wasn't but I felt like I struggled for at least an hour, but it was probably like 10 minutes. And I just remembered, I kept sinking ... And I started floating. I was floating up to the top, I felt the water temperature raise to warm, and as I felt the water temperature raise I jumped up and I saw the big boat that sits out there."

It was a rescue boat with people throwing life jackets into the water.

"And I said Jesus please keep me, just keep me so I can get to my children," said Coleman. "Keep me, Lord. I kept swimming, I was swimming as fast as I could. And I couldn't reach the life jackets."

A GoFundMe  page was started to help in laying Coleman's family members to rest. 

In their initial assessment, authorities blamed  severe thunderstorms  and winds that approached hurricane strength. A full investigation is underway.   

NTSB board member Earl Weener said Friday that investigators will be in Branson for the next 10 days, and it could be several months before a preliminary report is ready. The investigation will take one year, Weener said. 

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 hospitalized in critical condition. The captain survived, authorities said.

The weather service station in Springfield, about 40 miles north of Branson, issued a severe thunderstorm watch for its immediate area Thursday, saying conditions were ripe for winds of 70 mph. It followed up at 6:32 p.m. 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 7 p.m. Nine minutes later, 911 received the first call for help.

"When we issue a warning, it means take action," meteorologist Kelsey Angle said.

Jim Pattison Jr., the president of Ripley Entertainment, which owns the duck boat tour company involved in the incident, told " CBS This Morning " on Friday the boat "shouldn't have been in the water."

"I don't have all the details, but to answer your question, no, it shouldn't have been in the water if, if what happened, happened," he said when asked why the tour continued in such rough conditions.

Pattison said the duck boat had life jackets onboard but Missouri law doesn't require people to wear them.

"Usually the lake is very placid, and it's not a long tour," Pattison said. "They go in and kind of around an island and back, and we had other boats in the water earlier, and it had been a very sort of calm experience up until this came very suddenly."

Mayor Karen Best identified the crew member driving the boat as Bob Williams, known informally as "Captain Bob," and said he was a great ambassador for the city. "He was at every event. He knew everyone. He was always promoting Branson," she said.

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. 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.

Divers quickly located the vessel, which came to rest on its wheels on the lake bed, and authorities planned to recover it later Friday.

The boat sank in 40 feet of water and then rolled on its wheels into a deeper area with 80 feet of water. Investigators had no information about whether passengers were wearing life jackets or whether they were stowed aboard, the sheriff said.

The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) planned to help with the investigation.

Branson, about 200 miles 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.

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NTSB: Missouri Duck Boat Sinking That Killed 17 Could Have Been Avoided

Scott Neuman

A duck boat sits idle in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks, an amphibious tour operator in Branson, Mo., in July 2018. The company has since closed. Charlie Riedel/AP hide caption

A duck boat sits idle in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks, an amphibious tour operator in Branson, Mo., in July 2018. The company has since closed.

The 2018 sinking of a duck boat on Missouri's Table Rock Lake that killed 17 people would likely not have occurred if the U.S. Coast Guard had acted on recommendations made after a similar tragedy more than two decades ago, NTSB investigators said Tuesday.

During a teleconferenced meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board ahead of the release of the agency's final report on the accident, investigator Brian Young also said the accident could have been avoided if the operator of the Ride the Ducks attraction had heeded weather warnings of an impending derecho .

9 Of Those Killed In Duck Boat Capsizing Were Related

"On the day of the accident, the National Weather Service accurately forecasted and issued timely notifications of a severe thunderstorm that would impact the accident location," an abstract of the yet-unpublished final report concluded. "Ride the Ducks did not effectively use all available weather information to monitor the approaching severe weather and assess the risk it posed to its waterborne operations."

About 35 minutes after leaving the dock near the resort town of Branson on July 19, 2018, Stretch Duck 7, a modified World War II-era landing craft known as a DUKW, was seen struggling to make headway through steep waves as it took on water. Of the 31 people aboard, 16 passengers — including nine from the same family — and one of the two crew members aboard drowned.

The National Weather Service has said that winds reached 65 mph on the lake at the time of the accident.

The boat's captain, Kenneth Scott McKee, survived the accident. He was indicted in November 2018 on 17 counts of misconduct, negligence and inattention to duty by a ship's officer. More charges were added to McKee's indictment in June of last year, when two other employees of Ride the Ducks of Branson — its general manager at the time of the accident, Curtis P. Lanham, and operations supervisor, Charles V. Baltzell — were also charged with negligence.

Duck Boat Tour's Final Minutes Chronicled In Preliminary NTSB Report

At the NTSB teleconference, investigators reiterated that failing to implement all 22 recommendations the agency made after a previous duck boat sank in Arkansas in 1999 , killing 13 people, contributed to the 2018 accident. All but nine of them were ignored, including a key recommendation to add "reserve buoyancy" to the boats, allowing them to stay afloat after taking on water. Among other problems with the design of the vessels, the NTSB said they had insufficient "freeboard" — clearance between the deck and the waterline.

"NTSB investigators found that the accident vessel was originally constructed with a low freeboard, an open hull, and no subdivision or flotation, resulting in a design without adequate reserve buoyancy. Additionally, the NTSB cited previous inaction to address emergency egress on amphibious passenger vessels with fixed canopies which impeded passenger escape from the Stretch Duck 7," investigators concluded.

The NTSB released an April 15 letter it received from Daniel Abel, vice admiral of the Coast Guard, in which the service agreed that canopies and side curtains should be removed from the boats.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said duck boats should not be allowed to operate until the agency's recommendations are implemented. As of last year, more than a dozen duck boat tours were operating across the U.S. from California to Maine.

Sumwalt said he was "very optimistic" the Coast Guard was committed to improving small passenger boat safety.

Ripley Entertainment, which operated the now defunct Ride the Ducks of Branson, has settled 31 lawsuits filed by survivors or relatives of those who died, according to The Associated Press.

"We remain dedicated to working with the community of Branson, and continuing our support of all those who were impacted by the accident," company spokeswoman Suzanne Smagala-Potts said.

Duck boat crew rescues father and son from Charles River

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - A duck boat crew rescued a father and son from the Charles River Monday after the young child fell into the river and the father jumped in to help, officials said. 

Boston Duck Tours officials said duck boats were in the river practicing safety routines when an operator spotted people in distress. 

Boston Duck Tours said the father and son were not associated with any duck boats and said there were no public tours happening at the time of the rescue. Officials said staff helped pull the pair from the water, though, and soon brought them to shore.

State police said the incident happened near 9:30 a.m. near the back side of the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge. State police said preliminary information indicated the child squeezed through a railing before falling into the river.

Once back on dry land, police said, emergency crews brought the child to a local hospital as a precaution.

Cambridge Fire Department trucks were still parked near the river near 10:30 a.m. A Cambridge fire rescue boat was also spotted in the area.

Moments before 10:30 a.m., crews were seen pulling a stuffed animal from the water.

One woman who saw the rescue said she heard a woman screaming before the duck boat crew arrived at the scene. 

“I went out on the balcony and she said ‘Save him! Save him!” she said. 

Dominic Demasi, who took photos of the rescue, said he saw the father holding his son in one arm and grabbing onto a wall on the side of the river with his other arm. 

“I saw him holding a baby in his hands,” Demasi said. “You can tell it was a one-year-old or less infant…He rescued the baby really quick.” 

Security video showed the child fall into the river, creating a splash. The child’s father was then seen jumping over a fence. 

Demasi’s photos showed emergency crews on scene, lowering a life raft to the father and child while the duck boat approached their location.

The duck boat driver and his co-captain spoke to reporters about their experience, saying they sprang into action after they saw a crowd of people trying to get their attention from the Cambridge side of river.

The pair said they used a life raft and a ladder to pull the father and child aboard their boat, dubbed “Olga Ironsides.” The driver and the co-captain said they then wrapped the child in a blanket because he was crying and cold. As they made their way to a nearby dock, they said, the child’s father thanked them profusely.

“He just said ‘Thank you, thank you so much,’” said co-captain Kevin O’Neill. “He was effusively thankful. We said ‘Of course. We’re so glad that you guys are OK.’”

“This was the first time I’ve ever had that experience,” said driver Michael Rosario. “The adrenaline is just now ticking down as we realize we rescued somebody and that they’re going to be alive for another day.”

Rosario said he clipped a dock in the frantic process of steering the duck boat toward the father and son. Hours after the rescue, a chunk of wood was still wedged against one of the vehicle’s headlights.

“The adrenaline was kicking at first,” Rosario said. “So I didn’t really realize what had happened. Once it settled down, it was a sense of joy. This person is able to bring their child [home] and they’re safe.”

Rosario said he and O’Neill would be treating the rest of the day as if it were a normal day, leading their normal tours through Boston’s streets and waterways.

(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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