Tragic Event

[gitnby]

latest report says 17 dead, 14 survivors including the Captain. 

 

[GNSfishing]

I’m wondering why didn’t the driver just beach the thing on the south side of the small island next to the Bell until the storm blew over. Weren’t those designed for beach landing craft ?? There will be a lot of 2nd base thoughts afterward.

[Phil Lilley]

After an event like this, we are reviewing our policy on boats on the water with a storm approaching.  Now, we call the customer on his mobile phone if he's out and warn him of an approaching storm.  We may ask him to come back to the marina, we may ask him to seek shelter till it passes or just to use good judgement, depending on the severity of the system.  We'll get together and talk about it in light of what has happened.

I would think the Duck company has something in place, some protocol they follow when a storm is approaching.  They have phones and I'd think they'd have some sort of radio to talk to each other and/or home base.  If they don't, that doesn't say much for their foresight.  If they do, protocol wasn't followed, by at least 2 Captains.

We had resort guests on a Duck yesterday during the storm.  They had launched on to Taneycomo and were headed towards the fountains at the Landing.  He said he told, insisted to the Captain that they not go, turn back and the Captain said no - they were going to watch the light show.  Said he'd never had an accident before so...  It could have been #2 down - they were lucky.

As for changing course on Table Rock, those boats are SLOW and I bet they were hit with a head wind so fast they had no time to do anything except take it head on.  In the video, it looked like the quickest place to go to get out of the wind was to get behind the Belle but they didn't have time to veer one way or the other I bet.

Bottom line, they took a chance on the severity of the weather and got beat.

[fishinwrench]

At one point the captain had to of thought to himself "Dang, this is getting sketchy". 

At that point he should have ordered everyone to put on a PFD, and then radioed/called to report that he was concerned and may need some help.  Maybe (hopefully) he did. But failing to do so indicates that he was not a "Captain", he was just some dude driving a boat.

 

[Blazerman]

In the videos it looked like the drivers were trying to keep the things pointed at the waves because it looked like if they had turned sideways the waves would of rolled them over.

 

[shrapnel]

He also could have turned the boat and quartered the wind and waves instead of holding straight into them and taking them directly over the bow...the other Captain figured it out.

[jac63]

Horrible incident and I can't imagine the grief of the family and loved ones that survived. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this and I'm reminded that life can be very fleeting. Please don't take it for granted. 

[Haris122]

Man, that is tragic. We had just been down there a few days before. I personally wanted to go on one before but just never got to it. I wondered how that could happen seeing them riding around Branson in good weather but now it makes sense. From the footage it seemed like they were stuck between a rock and hard place, cause they had those windows closed to prevent water from coming in from the waves. I always figured worse things worse, you could always jump in the water but I didn’t realize that area actually closes.

[Bill Babler]

When any type of storm is present Lisa and the entire Lilleys staff is on top of it and in constant communication with us.  They have our backs.  Here is a couple of deals on this and it is easy to be a Monday morning QB.  The Belle was not sailing due to the weather, they were serving at the dock.  Should that tell you something?  Another thing was they had the side curtains down in 90+ degree heat to keep the waves and spray out.  Should never have gone out if you have to lower the curtains, and if your out there and it dictates that you have to lower the curtains, I'm D- - N sure going to have the PFD on every single person.

The Branson inshore staff should have had their backs on this and not let them on the water.

I'm just sick about this. 

[vernon]

This might be a little bit easier to swallow if it had been only one amphibian indicating that there was perhaps a single incompetent rogue captain that cost these people their lives.  

But the fact that there were two PLUS the one on Taney that Phil mentioned makes this whole thing stink to high heaven in my opinion.

Lack of strict safety policies and apparently a significant number of careless, arrogant drivers and captains seem to be commonplace at least on this particular day.

The Belle won't leave the dock because of the possibility of bad weather but these bathtubs with propellers will?

As Bill said it is indeed sickening.