N.Y. officials: Capsized boat had too few in crew

updated 10:11 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2005

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. - A tour boat that capsized on a New York lake, killing 20 people, did not have the required number of crew members aboard, leading state regulators to suspend licenses for all five vessels belonging to the company that operated the tour, officials said Monday.

The Ethan Allen, which overturned Sunday on Lake George while carrying 47 elderly tourists, was required by state boating regulations to have two crew members, said Wendy Gibson, spokeswoman for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Any commercial boat that carries 21 to 48 passengers must have two crew members, she said.

Authorities have said the only crew member aboard was Capt. Richard Paris.

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

Earlier in the day, officials had said state rules allowed for just one crewman for up to 50 passengers.

State regulators originally suspended the licenses for two small boats similar to the Ethan Allen, but Gibson said they had expanded the suspension to include two larger vessels that carry 400 and 200 passengers, compared with the smaller boats that carry between 30 and 50 people.

Earlier Monday, authorities said the passengers aboard the tour boat were sitting on long benches and slid sharply to one side of the vessel just before it flipped over.

Cause remains unknown
State police Superintendent Wayne Bennett said that 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,” Bennett said. Earlier in the day, Bennett said the seats were not secured to deck. But later, state police said that was incorrect.

The captain of the 40-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 earlier Monday. The boat flipped so fast that none of the 47 passengers — all senior citizens, most of them from Michigan — could put on a life jacket.

New York state regulations require that life jackets be made available for every person on a boat, but people do not have to wear them.

There was no immediate confirmation that another boat that could have churned up waves was in the area, and survivors were giving 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.

Boat pulled to surface for investigation
On Monday afternoon, crews using inflatable bags raised the sunken vessel 70 feet to the surface. They planned to pump it out and tow it to shore. National Transportation Safety Board investigators will then examine the wreck.

FATAL BOATING ACCIDENTS IN U.S. Recent accidents in the U.S. involving commercial vessels: —March 6, 2004: A water taxi capsized in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, killing five people. —Oct. 15, 2003: A Staten Island ferry slammed into a pier as it was docking, killing 11 people and injuring more than 60. —June 14, 2003: A charter fishing boat capsized off the Oregon coast, killing 11 people. —May 1, 1999: A World War II-era tourist boat sank in an Arkansas lake, killing 13 passengers. Source: Associated Press

Mark Rosenker, NTSB acting chairman, said investigators would focus on such things as the history of the boat, the pilot’s record, whether the boat had enough crew members, and whether the number of passengers played a role in the accident.

“It’s much too early to determine what happened out on that lake,” Rosenker said.

The fiberglass-hulled Ethan Allen, 38 feet long and 12 feet wide, was built in 1966 by Dyer. New York state has records on the vessel going back to 1983, and there has never been a problem with it, Gibson said.

Paris, a retired state trooper, has been licensed to operate the boat since 1986.

Rep. John Sweeney, R.-N.Y., said investigators are looking at whether there was too much weight on board the boat, even though the vessel was just below its capacity of 50 people. He said the Coast Guard assumes a weight of 150 pounds per person in calculating a vessel’s capacity — an assumption he said may have been off the mark.

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