PHL duck boat incident this morning - 2 missing

[Catigale]

It looks like 2 are missing, presumed drowned.

Synopsis

A duckboat (land/sea tour boat) with 37 on board had mechanical difficulty and drifted into the river and was struck by a barge coming up river.

The boat was pushed under water and sank. All boat occupants went into the water - 35 recovered with minor injuries, 2 missing.

NTSA is investigating

Link to story - http://www.philly.com/philly/news/break ... River.html

On edited - corrected recovered number of people

[Threms]

wow, thats bad. It tells that even close to land, you hawe to be precosius.

[NiceAft]

Since I have been hearing this constantly on the news since yesterday, I did not read the article you just posted.

Apparently the captain of the Duck Tours boat did not use his radio to contact the Coast Guard, or to announce his predicament.

That part of the Delaware is very heavyly used by commercial water traffic, and since Philadephia is a good 90 miles north of Delaware Bay, the river is not very wide where the accident occured. Those barges are quite silent, and come up on you fast. I have been caught off guard by one or two. The tugs though, have always been quick to sound their horns far in advance of any dangerous meetings . It should be interesting to read what the final report says.

I have taken Duck Tours in Philadelphia, Boston, New York , and Singapore. The Ducks are very stable. When on the New York ride, the Hudson was so rough that swells which hit the Duck head on, went over the top, and wet the passengers far aft. The terrible accident on the Delaware would not deter me from taking the tour.

Ray

[My Time]

Ouch!...It is amazing that more people didn't get hurt