KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National Transportation Safety Board has issued its final report for its investigation into the Branson duck boat sinking that claimed 17 lives.
Nearly two years after the incident, the NTSB has concluded the probable cause of the sinking was “Ride the Ducks Branson’s continued operation of waterborne tours after a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Table Rock Lake.”
The NTSB said the Coast Guard’s “failure to require sufficient reserve buoyancy in amphibious vessels” was also a contributing factor, as well as the Coast Guard’s “ineffective action to address emergency egress” on vehicles like the one which sank, which had a fixed canopy that impeded passenger escape.
The Coast Guard responded to the NTSB's claims last month, agreeing that canopies and side curtains should be removed from amphibious vehicles.
The NTSB investigation found that Stretch Duck 7 began its tour a minute after the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning. The NWS had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the area earlier in the day, too.
As passengers boarded the duck boat, the on-duty manager told the captain and driver to take them on the lake tour first, though it usually followed the land tour, according to the report.
The NTSB said three other Ride the Ducks vehicles also entered the water after the severe thunderstorm warning was issued.
About five minutes after Stretch Duck 7 entered into the water, the storm passed through the area and produced waves 3 to 5 feet high and wind gusts reported as high as 73 mph.
The NTSB said this particular storm was later determined to be a “derecho.”
A derecho, according to the NWS, is “a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms” which can produce destruction similar to a tornado along a straight path of 240 miles or more.
Another duck boat in the water was able to make it to land, but Stretch Duck 7 took on water during the storm and sank just 250 feet from the exit ramp, the report said.
The NTSB said the flooding occurred specifically in a “non-weathertight air intake hatch on the bow.”
NTSB investigators reviewed audio and video from the boat’s system, which they said gave a first-hand account of the circumstances leading up to the sinking.
The caption of the vessel and two other company executives have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection to the incident.
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