State: Boat a Crewmember Short During Deadly Crash

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The New York Sun

With only one crewmember and just a passenger shy of its capacity, a tour boat that flipped over in an upstate New York lake and killed 20 elderly tourists may have been doomed by a combination of events, police said.


Late yesterday, the state suspended the operating certificates for all five boats run by tour company Shoreline Cruises, including that of the Ethan Allen, which sank Sunday afternoon during what was supposed to be a relaxing, one-hour fall foliage tour for a group of senior citizens.


The suspensions followed the determination that the Ethan Allen carried only one crewmember, 74-year-old captain, Richard Paris, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Wendy Gibson, said.


The Ethan Allen has a maximum capacity of 50 people – 48 passengers and two crew, Ms. Gibson said. Commercial boats in New York that carry between 21 and 48 passengers must have two crewmembers.


“If that’s the case, there’s going to be a problem, and it looks like that’s the direction this is headed in,” the Warren County sheriff, Larry Cleveland, said.


State officials originally suspended the certificates for two small boats similar to the Ethan Allen – the de Champlain and the Algonquin – but Ms. Gibson said they had expanded the suspension to include the Adirondac and the Horicon. Those larger cruise ships carry 400 and 200 guests, respectively, compared with the smaller boats that carry between 30 and 50 people.


Shoreline Cruises did not return messages left at its office Sunday and yesterday.


Police also said a wave and a sudden shift of passengers’ weight on long benches may have factored into the capsizing.


Investigators will take “weeks, not days, potentially months,” to study the accident, Sheriff Cleveland said.


“The bottom line is, any one of these little factors could not have upset the boat,” he said. “If four or five of these came together, it’s possible.”


The boat was rated for 50 passengers based on the Coast Guard standard of 150 pounds per person. Sheriff Cleveland said with Americans growing fatter, that standard may have to be revised. Following a commuter plane crash that killed 21 people in 2003 in North Carolina, the FAA temporarily changed its weight guidelines for passengers and luggage.


Sheriff Cleveland cautioned against drawing conclusions from the suspended certificates.


“I do not believe there is any criminal culpability on any of the parties we have spoken with,” he said.


The state police superintendent, Wayne Bennett, said investigators do not know what initially caused the Ethan Allen to tip. But he said passengers either slid or were thrown to one side of the boat after it began lurching.


“And that, of course, would automatically mean an even bigger shift of weight,” Superintendent Bennett said.


The captain of the 38-foot glass-enclosed boat told authorities it was hit by waves from at least one other vessel and turned over as he tried to steer out of them, authorities said. The boat flipped so fast that no passenger could put on a life jacket. Forty-six passengers were from Michigan, with one from Ohio.


There was no immediate confirmation that another boat that could have churned up strong waves was in the area, and survivors gave investigators differing versions of what happened before the boat went down in calm, sunny weather, authorities said.


Eight people were hospitalized with shortness of breath, broken bones, and other injuries.


Yesterday afternoon, crews using inflatable bags raised the sunken boat 70 feet to the surface. Orange life vests could be seen floating inside. National Transportation Safety Board investigators will examine the wreck once it’s pumped out and towed to shore.


The New York Sun

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