Thirteen killed in tourist boat sinking
The sinking on an Arkansas lake of Miss Majestic, a WW II-era Subchapter-I
passenger vessel, which claimed the lives of 13 tourists, was caused by a
loose seal on one of the vessel's through-hull fittings
The vessel, a kind commonly referred to as a "duck boat" because of its
ability to travel both on land and water, flooded and sank in seconds just
200 yards from shore on Lake Hamilton near Hot Springs, Ark., dragging 13
people, including three children, to their deaths May 1. Despite being an
open craft, the vessel's canopy may have prevented some from swimming free.
Seven passengers and the vessel's operator did escape. No one aboard was
wearing a lifejacket.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, which has
jurisdiction to investigate this case since it involved the death of more
than five people, determined that the vessel was flooded through a shaft
seal that had come loose and that the vessel's bilge pump failed to operate.
"We found that an after boot on one of the drive shafts had come loose and
that's where water came in," said William Woody, the NTSBs lead investigator
in Washington, D.C. "And the vessel's Higgins bilge pump, which was
chain-driven by the vessel's prop shaft, did not engage. The sprocket had
come loose and was spinning without engaging the pump." The operator, who
holds a 25-ton Coast Guard license to operate these craft on Lake Hamilton,
testified that she had not heard the pump engage and therefore had no
warning that the vessel was taking on water.
Several of the vessel's "boots" had been serviced prior to the accident,
including the one that was loose, Woody said, The vessel was not tested in
the water prior to being out back in service, and it sank on its first
voyage back in operation.
===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.