Tragic Event

[MickinMO]

34 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

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

The curtains not being released and no decision to abandon ship will be widely criticized and rightfully so. Not only can people not get out, but the curtains would make the boat harder to drive and cut the wind. The News-Leader has a new story from the mom and ex wife of two survivors. The canopies initially kept people from getting out of the boat and eventually one side rolled up letting them swim to the surface. 

[HarryJ]

1 hour ago, Haris122 said:

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.

The duck side curtains are on a top mounted power roller, but the entire curtain rollers can be jettisoned by release levers located near the driver.  Whether or not they were released, to my knowledge has not be disclosed.  There is adequate openings for the average size person to escape without the side curtains.

[MoCarp]

I watched the sinking video, I wonder if they had a working bilge? 30 people all in panic mode how many could not swim...I rode the ducks as a kid all those years ago...hits home on how this can happen so easy...lives will be changed forever, my prayers go out to all involved

[MOPanfisher]

It is a sickening, terrible event.  Almost certainly there is a series of failures, events and bad decisions that contributed.  Maybe that Duck didn't have as good an engine and lacked power, maybe some seals gave way, maybe driver had little to no clue how to fight that kind of storm.  Lucky there weren't 2 at the bottom.

Terrible terrible thing, and I have no words to express the tragedy of it.

[netboy]

Wow, I find it hard to believe the "Captains" would take those silly things out with all the warnings. We live close to Cotter and got early warnings about the approaching storm.

Blew my heavy smoker with no wheels across the deck and had to retrieve deck furniture from down the bluff. Not a time to be on the water.

What a shame, 17 people killed for a few dollars in revenue.   Guess the duck captain doesn't get paid unless they go. 

Think they need to close all the duck operations down after this , the third tragedy.

Just my rant but condolences to the family of those lost in a senseless tragedy.

[vernon]

Good Lord.

Now they say that NINE of the fatalities are from the SAME family.

Devastating beyond comprehension.

[tjm]

Possibly the same storm that caught me on my way home from RRSP, around 6:30- 7pm; if so that was the fastest traveling storm in my memory, it appeared to cover 10-12 miles in less than a minute and it over took me between Cassville and Washburn, as I was driving  south ~55mph, I estimated the storms ground travel at more than 60mph.

I had not heard any warnings and none of the people I talked to at the park mentioned any. The sky was clear to the far side of yonder one moment and the storm was all over me the next. As to the warnings you all mention were they standard Tstorm possibility warnings that every one ignores or were they "TAKE SHELTER NOW" warnings? I can easily see with how fast the Washburn Prairie turned black how an operator making a 15 minute turnaround could have looked at the sky and made the call to go out.   It is a tragedy and the families need our prayers, but let's not convict the operators with out more information.

As to the PFD, they will never save a life if they are not strapped on before the wreck happens and almost no one wants to wear one until the wreck is over. Law allowing adults to decide is fine, but I think if I was a commercial operator I would over ride that law and make it mandatory. Those boats would be sort of a trap for the average non- diver if upside down, even with PDF or maybe more so because of PDF floating you up against the inside of the tub?

[ozark trout fisher]

This strikes me as a failure of having protocol in place-or at least following it-on a number of different levels. As someone who works in remote areas of the outdoors dang near every day, and has to make decisions that could ultimately decide whether I and my crew makes it back at the end of the day, you have to constantly keep yourself informed of conditions-and never let the situation/conditions/people who are yelling at you talk you out of making the right decision and getting the hell out/not leaving in the first place when that becomes necessary. It can be difficult, god knows, especially when you're being pressured to make a bad decision, but it's the one aspect of your job where failure is basically unforgivable. 

Just today we had an extremely violent storm occur at our sites. 95% of the way done for the day and the temptation was strong to push it when I got the weather alert. Came out of nowhere, was not supposed to happen today. But no, we got the hell out. And thank goodness. Wind gusts got up into the 60s mph and there are down trees/limbs everywhere. Had we not left when we did, maybe not all of us got out. 

This is beyond heartbreaking, and more-so for being 100% preventable. 

 

[176champion]

The talking about recovering the duck at some point...ages ranged from 1 years old to 70...prayers to all...

[slothman]

I just heard that it is going to take a year to release the results of the investigation about what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it in the future. 

It seems to me that while there may be multiple answers to these questions, the answers do seem pretty common sense. Why is it going to take that long. Seems to me, that there must be some reason for them to already be planning to drag it out that long.