Amphibious boat tours planned where accident that killed 17 occurred

BRANSON — A new company said it is planning to bring tours featuring “unsinkable” amphibious boats back to a Missouri lake where 17 people drowned when a duck boat sank in 2018.

The owners of Branson Duck Tours LLC said they hope to begin the tours on Table Rock Lake near Branson late this spring, The Kansas

City Star reported. The duck boat tours were a longtime popular attraction in the tourist town but had not returned to the lake since the tragedy.

To date, the city hasn’t received a business license application from the new company, which has not contacted any city departments, spokeswoman Melody Pettit said. Boats used in the new venture will not resemble the World War II-era amphibious passenger vehicles that were in use when one sank in July 2018 during a storm, said Jaredan Braal, of Memphis co-owner of the new venture.

The new boat tours would use Hydra-Terra amphibious vessels, which include foamfilled compartments in the hull for buoyancy. The company said on its website that the boat’s “design has been proven to be unsinkable.”

“This is a completely different vehicle with greatly improved safety. … The similarities are it is an amphibious tour,” Braal said.

Seventeen of the 31 people on board a duck boat died July 19, 2018 when the amphibious passenger vehicle capsized and sank during a thunderstorm on Table Rock Lake.

The National Weather Service station in Springfield, about 40 miles north of Branson, had issued a severe-thunderstorm watch for its immediate area, 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 Table Rock Lake. The warning mentioned both locations.

The boat went down about 40 minutes later, shortly after 7 p.m. Among the casualties were an Arkansas father and son — Steve Smith, 53, and Lance Smith, 15 — from Osceola. Another member of the family, daughter Loren Smith, survived. She was 14 years old at the time of the incident.

The casualties also included nine members of the same Indianapolis family.

None of the 31 passengers on board was wearing a life jacket, according to a report released by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The incident was similar to another fatal accident that occurred in May 1999 when 13 people — including five Arkansans — died when a duck boat sank near Hot Springs.

That boat was carrying 20 passengers and had just begun a tour of Lake Hamilton when it started taking on water at Catalina Point off St. John’s Island. The driver said she tried to turn around and return to shore, but the vessel sank within 30 seconds.

Ripley Entertainment, which owned the duck boat that sank on Table Rock Lake, settled 31 lawsuits related to the tragedy. Criminal charges filed against three Ripley employees were dismissed in December.