Workers recover Missouri duck boat that sank in storm, killing 17

Workers have retrieved a duck boat that sank while carrying tourists on a southern Missouri lake during powerful winds, killing 17 people.

Live video from KYTV showed a crane attached to a barge pulling the Ride the Ducks boat from Table Rock Lake on Monday morning. A boat pushed it toward the shore.

The boat sank Thursday night in churning waves near the tourist town of Bransonafter a thunderstorm generated near-hurricane strength winds. The victims were from Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. The boat was submerged in 24 metres of water.

The National Transportation Safety Board and U.S. Coast Guard are investigating what caused the boat to sink.

Nine of the people who died belonged to one Indiana family. Others killed came from Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois.

Divers already have recovered a video-recording device that was aboard the boat, although it's unclear whether it was working when the boat capsized or whether any data can be retrieved. The recorder is headed to the National Transportation Safety Board lab in Washington, D.C.

Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesperson, said it was unclear what the recorder captured, including whether it recorded audio.

None of those aboard were wearing flotation devices. Missouri law requires boat passengers ages seven and younger to wear life jackets on the water, but commercial vessels are exempt. They are required only to have enough flotation devices for all passengers and crew, and life jackets that fit every child on board, said Lt. Tasha Sadowicz of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Steve Paul, owner of the Test Drive Technologies inspection service in the St. Louis area, has said he issued a written report in August 2017 for Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, after inspecting two dozen boats. In the report, he explained why the vessels' engines and pumps that remove water from their hulls might fail in inclement weather.

Paul said he won't know if the boat that sank is one that he inspected until it has been recovered from the lake.

Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, hasn't responded to questions about Paul's concerns.

Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, said the company is assisting authorities with the recoveryeffort and that the accident last week was the company's first in more than 40 years of operation in Branson.

The company's website said it was offering to pay for all medical and funeral expenses for victims, to return all personal items from the accident scene and to help with families' travel or accommodations. The company also said it was offering grief counselling for its own employees.

Victims remembered

The 17 people who died in the accident were remembered Sunday during a service attended by hundreds of people in the community.

More than a dozen survivors of the tragedy, along with their family and friends, filled the front pews of the church to organ music. Although a patrolman guarded their privacy, he allowed one attendee, Carmen Lawson, to deliver pink and red roses after the service to a family that lost nine members.

"It was such a tragedy," said Lawson, 61, of Branson, who delivered the flowers. "I feel for the family."

Branson Mayor Karen Best recalled the desperate family members who turned to city hall for information about their loved ones.

"We started putting faces with names. Those who were once strangers to us quickly became family," Best said. "They were a part of our community. And we did what families do. We held hands, we wept and we prayed together."

She praised the people who tried to save others from drowning, calling them "heroes who did everything in their power to save lives."

The service was held at the college near the site of the accident.

"Today we are all family," said College of the Ozarks President Jerry C. Davis. "We are here to comfort those who have been affected by this tragedy in so many, many ways."

Online fundraisers had raised more than $400,000 US for the Indiana family's funeral expenses by Sunday afternoon.

During the closing benediction, Nixa Fire Chaplain Steve Martin said of the victims that while "most of them are visitors ... they are not strangers to us."