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

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.”

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.