Branson duck boat: 17 people killed when Missouri boat sinks near Branson

August 06, 2024

BRANSON, M0. — It had been a nice summer day here in the Ozarks, and the duck boat filled with sightseers was coasting through a calm Table Rock Lake. Then the wind began to pick up and the water started to churn as a powerful thunderstorm crashed through.

Rain pummeled the amphibious boat, waves tossed it like a toy, 65 mph gusts of wind hit it with spray, and water crashed over its bow. As the boat struggled toward the dock and safety for its 29 passengers and two-member crew, it was overwhelmed. Gripping video footage from the lake showed the boat seesawing and lurching in unrelenting waves. Before long, the small, flat-bottomed, half-boat half-bus capsized and sank, plunging to the bottom of the lake and killing more than half of the people aboard.

By the end of the day Friday, authorities had recovered the bodies of 17, a list of victims that crossed generations, ranging from 1 to 76 years old, many of them out-of-state visitors — including nine members of one family. Authorities said the captain survived, while the boat’s driver was killed. Branson Mayor Karen Best identified the driver as local resident Robert “Bob” Williams, 73.

Late Friday night, authorities released the names of the passengers who died. Four, including Williams, were from Missouri: William Asher, 69; Rosemarie Hamann, 68; Janice Bright, 63; and William Bright, 65. Two — Steve Smith, 53; and Lance Smith, 15 — were from Arkansas. One, Leslie Dennison, 64, was from Illinois.

The remaining nine were from Indiana, all from the Coleman family: Angela, 45; Belinda, 69; Ervin 76; Glenn, 40; Horace, 70; Reece, 9; Evan, 7; Maxwell, 2; and Arya, 1. Only two members of the family survived.

Duck boats are a popular tourist attraction in cities across the country, allowing passengers to sightsee by land and water in the same vehicle. The boat here, near this resort town in southwest Missouri, had been on a regular tour around Table Rock. Though Table Rock Lake is normally placid, some authorities and experts said Friday that it is unclear why operators did not heed forecasts and warnings that the potentially violent storm was approaching.

Trent Behr captured video of the storm on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo., on July 19 that caused a duck boat to capsize and sink, killing 17 people. (Video: Trent Behr)

The violent storm behind the duck boat tragedy was well-predicted, not ‘out of nowhere’

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader told reporters that he believed the boat — which he said was one of two duck boats still on the lake during the storm — sank because of the weather. When asked Friday whether he thought operator or design error played a role in the tragedy, Rader declined to answer. The second boat made it back to the dock safely.

Jim Pattison Jr., president of Ripley Entertainment, which bought the duck boat operation in 2017, said in an interview Friday that it appeared the storm came on suddenly on a lake that normally is “very, very flat,” taking the crew by surprise. He said the boat captain has 16 years’ experience.

“We’re absolutely devastated,” Pattison said. “Our hearts just really go out to everybody, and it’s just something that is very sad.”

Suzanne Smagala, a spokeswoman for Ripley Entertainment, said that the company later became aware of the severe weather alert that had been issued before the storm and that boat captains receive weather alerts by email or text message. “However, we don’t know if the captain received it” on Thursday night, she said.

“When the weather picked up, the captain turned it around,” she added. The boat was heading toward the shore when it capsized.

Though tourists might have known generally that thunderstorms were expected sometime Thursday, meteorologists had been tracking the storm for hours, and their forecasts offered considerable lead time. The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch at 11:20 a.m., nearly eight hours before the storm struck, and at that time, it predicted “widespread damaging winds likely with isolated significant gusts to 75 mph possible.”

The Weather Service then issued a severe thunderstorm warning — indicating a violent storm was imminent — at 6:32 p.m., about 30 minutes before police were called about the boat capsizing.

Marshall Shepherd, a past president of the American Meteorological Society and a professor at the University of Georgia, tweeted that the “tragedy was completely preventable.”

“This is not 1901,” he wrote. “We have satellites, advanced radars, good weather models, all short-term weather information showed that storms approaching well before the boat was on the water.”

Authorities said they expected to recover the sunken boat late Friday from its resting place in 80 feet of water. Rader said the boat went down in about 40 feet of water but rolled to a deeper point and ended up on its wheels.

“It’s going to take time to know the details of everything that occurred,” Gov. Mike Parson (R) said at a news briefing Friday, noting that the sprawling investigation had just begun. “Until that investigation is completed, I don’t think it’s my place or anyone’s place to speculate all the things that could have happened or why they happened.”

The duck boat that sank Thursday was owned by Ride the Ducks Branson, a tourism company that takes people on tours of the Ozarks by land and water using the amphibious vehicles. Ride the Ducks is a national duck tour operator with locations across the United States, and Ripley’s purchase of the Branson company last year added to its collection of more than 100 entertainment venues. Those include the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! franchise and the Guinness World Records Attractions, as well as mazes, haunted houses, traveling shows and other attractions across the United States and 10 other countries worldwide.

Pattison told The Post on Friday that the company bought Ride the Ducks Branson — to date, Ripley’s only duck boat outfit — in part because Ripley already had a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium in Branson.

A press release announcing the purchase described the tour as a 70-minute, guided amphibious tour that takes passengers through the Ozarks. At the time of the announcement, the company operated 22 duck vehicles from March to November. The announcement has since been removed from Ripley’s website.

Duck boats were originally developed as amphibious military vehicles used in beach landings. The duck boat tours in Branson include a trip up a nearby mountain to look at decades-old military equipment.

While some tourism duck boats were converted from the Army’s World War II-era “DUKW” boats, those used by Ride the Ducks Branson were replicas, the company said, updated with modern safety equipment.

Smagala said the boat tragedy was the first accident involving the duck boats in Branson. The company has been operating in the city for 40 years and is “a staple of Branson,” Smagala said.

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Federal investigators also headed to the scene to join state and local officials, with the National Transportation Safety Board dispatching a “Go Team” to the lake to help probe the latest disaster involving duck boats, which have been involved in several fatal accidents in water and on land. Thirteen people died in 1999 when a duck boat took on water and sank while touring Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Ark. The NTSB found that when the boat was converted for tourism, it was not given enough built-in buoyancy to stay afloat if flooded. Just seven minutes after that boat entered the lake, it sank in 60 feet of water.

In 2015, a Ride the Ducks boat crashed into a charter bus on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle; five college students were killed and dozens of other people injured. Ride the Ducks International agreed the following year to pay $1 million for violating federal safety regulations, according to the Seattle Times.

Two passengers on a duck boat were killed in 2010 near Philadelphia when a barge collided with the smaller vessel. The NTSB determined that the accident — which caused the duck boat to sink — occurred because the person guiding the barge was focused on his cellphone, although federal investigators also criticized the duck boat’s operator, Ride the Ducks, for actions they said contributed to the accident.

Some of the deadly accidents show dangers that come with some versions of the hybrid vessels. Often the boats are covered by thick canopies that shield riders from the sun and rain, but can create an obstacle to safety in emergencies, trapping passengers inside as the vessels sink.

Four of the passengers who died on the Miss Majestic in 1999 in Arkansas were pinned against the underside of the canopy.

“Contributing to the high loss of life was a continuous canopy roof that entrapped passengers within the sinking vehicle,” an NTSB report on the incident said.

The Coast Guard issued nationwide standards for inspections of the vehicles in December 2000, which still cover the industry. The NTSB recommended in 2002 that built-in flotation devices or other means be added to the retrofitted military boats to make sure the vessels “remain afloat and upright.”

The duck boats in Branson are popular with tourists and locals alike, said Best, the mayor. She said she could not recall previous problems with the two companies that have operated the boats in the 16 years she has lived in Branson.

“The duck boats are such a great asset to our community,” she said. “As a local, I’ve ridden in them I can’t tell you how many times.”

The scene after a duck boat sinks, killing 17 during a storm near Branson, Mo.

The boat was touring Table Rock Lake when a thunderstorm swept in. Authorities said 31 people were on board.

Many tourists riding similar boats in the District on Friday were undeterred by news of the fatal event in Missouri, viewing it as an isolated occurrence.

As a fleet of boats operated by DC Ducks filed into Union Station on Friday afternoon, the Valdonedo family disembarked with wide smiles. The vacationers from Panama planned to stay in the nation’s capital for a week, and they said they had no intention of changing their plans to ride the duck boat.

“One random accident doesn’t mean they’re a bad company,” said Gabby Valdonedo, 25. “It’s a good way to see the city.”

Her sister, Monique Valdonedo, 19, added that duck boats are “way more fun than going down the Metro.”

But other tourists expressed some concern about the amphibious tours. Tiffany Li, 19, was visiting Washington with a friend on Friday and considered taking a DC Duck tour to pass time before their train back to New York.

“Clearly it’s a safety issue,” said Kume. “The boats don’t seem that stable, but tourists don’t know any better. They just pay to have fun.”

Li compared the danger to riding a roller coaster at an amusement park. “You don’t want to question things when you’re having a good time, so you just don’t think about it,” she said.

Ultimately, they decided against taking the tour, though Li said the decision was based more on money than safety.

Branson, near the Arkansas border, is a destination for country and live-music fans, with many acts covering Elvis, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton standards. Its main boulevard includes Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede Dinner Attraction, and Silver Dollar City, an 1800s-themed amusement park. Best, who is in her second term in office, said the city has about 10,000 residents and welcomes more than 8 million visitors yearly; July is one of its busiest months.

Best and her staff prepared Branson City Hall as a refuge for those waiting for news of their loved ones, and the city brought in certified grief counselors. Best said she saw one of the grief counselors take wet socks from a young man and dry them with the bathroom hand drier. “That was such a small thing, but for that young man, having dry socks was such an improvement from being cold and wet,” she said. “Little things like that meant a lot to the families.”

Seven passengers were injured, and two of those were in serious condition.

Williams, the driver of the boat, lived in Branson with his wife of 30 years. He was described as having loved his role promoting Branson.

“Every time you saw him he was smiling,” Best said. “He was a great guy. He loved Branson.”

Victor Richardson, a grandson of Williams’s, said in a telephone interview that “he was the calmest spirit you could ever meet.”

Police were called about the duck boat sinking shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, officials said. While dive teams headed to the scene, people already there began to help, Rader said. Among those helping were one of his deputies, who was off-duty and providing security on the Branson Belle, a showboat used for lake tours.

The weather had been nice until shortly before the disaster, Allison Lester, who saw what happened from a nearby boat, said in a television interview.

“The wind really picked up bad, and debris was flying everywhere, and just the waves were really rough,” Lester told “Good Morning America” on Friday. “It was just suddenly and out of nowhere.”

In video captured by onlookers from the lake, two duck boats can be seen plunging up and down in choppy waves and high spray. One boat lags behind the other, nose-diving into the water.

“Oh my gosh, oh no,” a woman is heard saying in the background of the video. “Somebody needs to help them.”

Berman, Chiu and Wax reported from Washington. Abigail Hauslohner, Michael Laris, Luz Lazo, Deanna Paul, Julie Tate, Jason Samenow, Samantha Schmidt and Rachel Siegel in Washington contributed to this report. Ristau is a freelance journalist based in Tulsa.

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