Thread: Duck boat victims include 9 from one family, ship's driver, tourists

Very tragic. Be aware of your surroundings, how to save yourself, then help others if you can.

I have seen these boats in person, I have read all the tragic stories of the accidents.

It was probably taking on water, then flipped.

I am pretty sure the one in Hot Springs (that we almost got on) just has a rear end seal replaced and it blew out. Took on water quickly, the people saw it coming up into the floor and made no effort to get off it.

Get your life jacket and get off! Do not rely on someone to tell you what to do.

My husband and I would have looked at each other and said "GET OFF" now, and that is that.

Just heard that there are 3 design issues with these Duck Boats, one is lack of foam in the hull to help it float when it takes on water, something else I didn't catch but something related to the WWII design, and then the canopy top that traps people in the boat when it capsizes. So sad, just horrible. They also clarified that a report floating around that the parent company, Ripley Entertainment, wasn't cooperating was in fact false, the NSTB said they were very cooperative, even providing an "exemplary" boat for the NSTB to use in comparing it to the one that sank.

From what it seems so far, while there are several issues that made this deadly in the end, the real issue is being on the water in that type of weather and not getting off the water as soon as they knew they were in trouble. It just takes a few seconds to get to shore or within easy life vest and swimming range of a dock or shore. In that video people took of the boat fighting those waves, it's roaring past a boat dock it could gotten to and let the people off. That was horrible judgment by the Captain. I'm very familiar with that lake, it also has quiet coves everywhere, something else he could have done is get out of the main part of the lake and both the wind and waves reduce significantly. That's what we'd do when it was too rough, it's like night and day in a cove and they're everywhere, he drove by many of them. I think he thought it could make it back to his company dock and that was a fatal decision for 17 people.

I watched the Tia Coleman interview yesterday and it is heartbreaking. Pray for this sweet woman.

Missouri duck boat survivor describes sinking




CNN

]Published on Jul 21, 2018
Duck boat survivor Tia Coleman tells how she survived the incident that killed nine members of her family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrwYWBTsuPo



From the Gateway Pundit

TRAGIC=> Duck Boat Survivor Speaks Out After Losing 9 Family Members, Including 3 Children (VIDEO)

by Cristina Laila July 21, 2018

A ‘Ride the Duck’ boat capsized on Table Rock Lake in the Missouri Ozarks Thursday evening after 60 mph winds created large waves, resulting in 17 confirmed deaths.

According to reports, the weather service issued severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the afternoon.

Eleven members of the Coleman family were on the duck boat that capsized, tragically nine out of eleven died.

Tia Coleman spoke out about her survival and losing her husband and three children [youngest a 1 year old baby].

Coleman said she felt like she was drowning and asked the Lord to take her. “I finally said, Lord just let me die. I can’t keep drowning. I just can’t…and then I just let go and was floating up to the top of the water and I felt the water temperature raise and I jumped up and I saw a big boat and they were throwing out life jackets and I said Jesus just keep me, just keep me so I can get to my kids.”

“The only way I’m getting through this is through God,” Tia Coleman said. “A lot of people here in the city, I’ve had pastors come here and they’ve prayed for me and they’ll keep me in their thoughts and prayers–it’s the best way I’m getting through it.”
Via Fox 5:

Among the deceased are nine family members from the Indianapolis area, including four children.

• 45-year-old Angela Coleman
• 1-year-old Arya Coleman
• 69-year-old Belinda Coleman
• 76-year-old Ervin Coleman
• 7-year-old Evan Coleman
• 40-year-old Glenn Coleman
• 70-year-old Horace Coleman
• 2-year-old Maxwelll Coleman
• 9-year-old Reece Coleman

Two other relatives aboard the boat survived, Tia Coleman and her nephew, who has not yet been identified.

Tia Coleman also said the family was not issued life jackets; the captain said they didn’t need them.

An official, verified GoFundeMe has been set up to help Tia Coleman. You can donate by clicking here.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...hildren-video/

It is just heart-breaking.

Originally Posted by Judy

Sounds simple, something must have gone wrong.

It is a combination of things going wrong.

You have people who board a land vehicle. They are, many of them, not at all experienced with boating.

Of course the captain failed to check or heed weather warnings.

The moment things start getting rough, passengers and crew should be required to don life-vests.

The boat, itself, should have walls, canape, seats, and all parts that can be, made of flotation material (brought up in Judy's post# 12). There is no reason for such a boat to go underwater. That would leave something for people to hang onto until rescue arrives.

There were shortcuts taken every step of the way in this trip. Obviously the operating company faces major lawsuits.

Branson duck boat operator was warned in 2017 of dangers, inspector says

By Barnini Chakraborty | Fox News
2 hours ago

BRANSON, Mo. – Mechanical inspector Steven Paul said Sunday he warned the company operating the now-capsized duck boat in Missouri about massive design flaws and dangerous safety issues almost a year before Thursday's tragic accident that killed 17 people and injured seven others.

"My first thought was I was thankful that me and my family weren't on the ducks," he told Fox News in a telephone interview. "My second thought was, 'Oh man, I probably inspected that boat.'"

Paul, who served in the U.S. Army for 6 years as a diesel mechanic before opening Test Drive Technologies in 2009, told Fox he was hired by Ripley Entertainment last year to inspect 24 duck boats. The Florida-based company had been interested in buying the businesses and wanted an assessment.

"My inspection was so they had the opportunity to know what they were buying before the sale was final," Paul said.

Paul said he sent the company a "2-to-3-page fleet inspection report" as well as 24 checklist reports and "as many as 20 photos for each duck" he inspected in August 2017. In the report, he cautioned that the boats' engines -and pumps that remove water from their hulls- might fail in bad weather. In rough conditions, water could get into the exhaust system, and then into the motor, cutting it off. With the motor off, its pump for removing water from the hull would not operate.

In Paul's interview with Fox, he added that the boats' canopies can turn into "death traps" because when the boat sinks, people cannot get out from underneath the canopy.

After filing his report last year, Paul said he came home and told his wife that the family "would not be riding the ducks" anymore.

A source with knowledge of the report but not authorized to speak publicly about it strongly pushed back on Paul's claims he warned the company that the boats were unsafe.

"There is no documentation and there were no warnings," the source said.

Ripleys Entertainment purchased Ride the Ducks in December.

Jim Pattison Jr., president of the company, said last week the boat "shouldn't have been in the water."

Steven Paul received this invoice and payment receipt for the inspection of the duck boats in Branson, Mo. (Steven Paul)

Fox News has heard a voicemail sent by a maintenance director to Paul acknowledging the report. Fox has also seen an invoice and payment receipt for the inspection of the duck boats last year. Paul claims he sent the company emails of his correspondence with the Missouri Department of Transportation regarding specific regulations of where the boats do not pass DOT standards.

The National Transportation Safety Board told Fox News on Sunday they do not comment on ongoing investigations.

The duck boat that capsized near the tourist town of Branson, Mo., on Thursday had 31 people on board when it sank in 40-foot waters. The amphibious vessel overturned during a fast-moving summer storm that produced near-hurricane gusts which turned ripples into massive waves.

Cellphone video from a witness showed the duck boat taking on water and struggling to move before sinking, making it one of the deadliest duck boat accidents in U.S. history.
Earl Weener of NTSB speaks in Branson, MO following the deadly duck boat tragedy that left 17 people dead.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the boat that sank was built in 1944 and had passed an inspection in February. But Paul said the boat would have been heavily modified to make it longer so that only part of it dates to World War II. He said it would still have the design flaw he identified in his report.

The accident Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake also is raising questions about whether storm warnings in the area went unheeded and whether any agency can keep boaters off the water when inclement weather approaches.

Witnesses have said the weather appeared calm before a storm suddenly whipped up strong waves and spray.

But nearly eight hours earlier, the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the western and central Missouri counties.

A severe thunderstorm warning that went out at 6:32 p.m. specifically mentioned Table Rock Lake. The first emergency calls over the accident occurred just after 7 p.m.

Meteorologist Elisa Raffa of KOLR-TV in Springfield said in a phone interview Saturday that her station was forecasting the threat of severe weather all morning.

"This storm didn't come out of nowhere," she said. "That is what pains me. I feel like we did everything, at least we tried to do everything, by the book as meteorologists and we still had this horrible tragedy on our hands.”

Paul says he's perplexed by the decision to take people out in inclement weather.

"There has got to be a disconnect somewhere," he said. "They should have erred on the side of caution."

Speaking from her hospital bed, survivor Tia Coleman told reporters that the boat's captain told riders they would not need life jackets. When the vessel began to take on water, Coleman said "it was too late."

"I believe that a lot of people could have been spared," said Coleman, who lost 9 members of her family on the duck boat. "I lost all of my children. I lost my husband. I lost my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. I lost my uncle. I lost my sister-in-law ... And I love my nephew."

Late Sunday, the Coast Guard announced that salvage operations to retrieve the sunken boat would begin Monday morning.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/22...ctor-says.html

"Speaking from her hospital bed, survivor Tia Coleman told reporters that the boat's captain told riders they would not need life jackets. "

---------------------------

Did the Captain tell them this when they first entered the boat and the weather was fine? I believe it is not a law in MO to wear it at all times while on a boat ride. Nobody wears a life jacket at all times out on the water unless they voluntarily do so. I believe those jackets are visibly present. Is there no responsibility for anyone to grab a jacket and get off themselves?

Or did he say that as the storm hit, the waves kicked up and the boat bouncing on the water? I doubt it. I am sure that Captain was frantically trying to get that boat back to shore as quickly as possible, did not get on a microphone and tell people "do not put on a life jacket" and had NO time to physically put life jackets on each and every passenger and tell them what to do then get back to driving the boat back to shore.

I am not waiting for someone to tell me to exit a burning building or grab a life jacket and get off a boat in rough seas taking on water.

The Captain wasn't driving the boat, the driver was driving the boat, he drowned, the Captain survived.

Originally Posted by Judy

The Captain wasn't driving the boat, the driver was driving the boat, he drowned, the Captain survived.

Captain, Driver...no matter. My point is I do not believe they told them not to put on life jackets in the middle of a storm, they probably had no time to announce anything...let alone specifically say "do not put on your life jacket".

The Driver drives the Duck boat on land. The Captain drives the boat on water. They switch over before it enters water.

I haven't read or heard anyone claim they told them they didn't need them during the storm, only when they were getting on the boat, which wouldn't be unusual. No one wears a life vest the whole time they're on a boat, so while it sounds bad now, there's nothing at all unusual about that, maybe kids should wear them in case they crawl or climb around and go overboard. In my world, we don't take little kids out on boats for that reason, but a lot of people do.