NTSB: Recordings show weather change before boat sank
ST. LOUIS >> Video and audio recordings from a fatal tourist boat accident in Missouri show that the lake went from calm to deadly dangerous in a matter of minutes, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.
The NTSB cited preliminary findings gathered from the video recorder camera system salvaged by divers after the duck boat sank July 19 at Table Rock Lake near Branson. Seventeen of the 31 people on board died, including nine family members from Indianapolis.
The material was examined at a lab in Washington, but the agency has not yet analyzed the findings and no conclusions about the cause of the accident, one of the nation’s worst maritime accidents in recent decades, can be drawn.
The findings, though, paint a chilling picture of the final few minutes before the boat went under.
The captain and driver boarded the vessel at 6:27 p.m. The excursion begins on land at a terminal in Branson.
The vessel arrived at the lake a few minutes before 7 p.m. and the captain briefed passengers on the location of emergency exits and life jackets, then demonstrated use of life jackets and pointed out the location of life rings.
But suddenly just after 7 p.m., whitecaps rapidly appeared on the water and winds increased, the NTSB said.
The driver lowered plastic side curtains and at 7:01 p.m. the captain made a comment about the storm.
At 7:03 p.m. the captain made a call on a handheld radio but the content was unintelligible. A minute late, an electronic tone associated with the bilge alarm activated, until about a minute later when the captain reached down and the alarm stopped.
The captain made another call on a handheld radio at 7:05 but the content was again unintelligible.
Over the next couple of minutes, water splashed inside the passenger compartment.
At 7:07 p.m. an electronic tone associated with the bilge alarm activated again.
At 7:08 p.m. the inwardfacing video recording ended as the vessel was still on the surface of the water.