The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)

Tour boat captain indicted after sinking kills 17

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The captain of a tourist boat that sank in southwest Missouri and killed 17 people, including nine members of an Indiana family, didn’t tell passengers to put on flotation devices or prepare them to abandon ship even after waves crashed into the boat during a severe storm, according to an indictment released Thursday.

The federal indictment shows Kenneth Scott McKee faces 17 counts of misconduct, negligence or inattentio­n to duty by a ship’s officer resulting in death. The deaths occurred after the duck boat, a refurbishe­d amphibious vessel originally used by the military during World War II, sank during a storm in July .

U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said the 51-year-old McKee also is accused of failing to properly assess the weather before and after the boat went into Table Rock Lake near Branson, a Midwestern tourist town known for country music shows and entertainm­ent venues.

“This is the beginning, not the end, of our efforts in this matter,” Garrison said during a news conference in Springfiel­d, adding that he couldn’t release specifics about the investigat­ion.

Ripley Entertainm­ent, the company that operated the boats and suspended the operation following the accident, didn’t respond to messages from The Associated Press. McKee’s attorney declined comment.

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