Update on Lake George Tragedy

Investigators are looking at whether the wake from one of the larger scenic cruise boats, coupled with passengers on board the Ethan Allen switching sides to get a better view of the fall foliage, played a role in the boat capsizing and sinking. They may also look at whether the boat was overloaded despite the fact that the boat was able to accomodate 50 people. Twenty people were killed and 27 others were taken to area hospitals.

The latest press conference revised the death toll from the sinking of the Ethan Allen to 20 from 21.

Some were as old as 90, and they had arrived at the dock along the village's boardwalk with the help of walkers and wheelchairs as they boarded a small tour boat.

The boat had traveled about three miles north of the dock and was turning around to head back south when tragedy struck: the 38-foot, open-sided launch, the Ethan Allen, loaded nearly to capacity with 48 passengers, overturned at about 3 p.m.

Twenty people died in the smoky, chaotic scene of the capsized vessel. They apparently drowned about 150 yards from shore in a protected cove off Cramer Point, just north of Hearthstone Point State Campground.

Twenty-seven other passengers and the captain, Richard Paris, 74, survived.

Emergency medical technicians and other rescue workers rushed to the aid of the sinking boat. With the help of pleasure-boaters, they pulled survivors into their vessels and began CPR.

"Everybody was screaming. Everybody was afraid," said Joanne Rahal, of Queensbury, who was trying to find survivors to pull to safety and into her speedboat shortly after the capsizing.

There was no sign that any of the Michigan tourists were wearing life preservers, witnesses said. That is standard procedure for tour boats, which usually stow flotation devices.

The boat rolled and turned over so quickly that there was no time to don life jackets, officials said.

Officials speculated that the boat may have been turning sharply when it hit the wake from another tour boat, causing the Ethan Allen to roll onto its side, tossing the passengers overboard in the smoke and steam from the boat's hot engine as it was submerged.

While the 27 survivors were initially taken to Glens Falls Hospital, only seven were admitted with a range of injuries, from broken ribs to chest pains to shortness of breath as a result of ingesting water. Those survivors who were released were transported to the Georgian Hotel and Resort in Lake George Village.

The Albany Times Union has much more with continuing coverage, including maps of the area and other eyewitness accounts.

UPDATE:
The NTSB is opening an investigation.

UPDATE:
The Ethan Allen was operating without the requisite number of crew members on board. The State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has suspended licenses for all five vessels belonging to Shoreline Cruises.

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.

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.

Technorati: Lake George, capsize, accident.