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BRANSON, MO — Authorities have called off the search for survivors after an amphibious tourist boat capsized near Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people and injuring seven others. The boat overturned during a severe thunderstorm Thursday night on Table Rock Lake, authorities said. Four young children, ages 1, 2, 7 and 9 and all from the same family, were among the dead, as well as two 15-year-olds. The oldest person killed was 70.

“Crews from multiple agencies are on scene of an MCI ‘mass casualty incident,'” said the Southern Stone County Fire Protection District on Facebook. “Several patients transported to area hospital. Divers on scene.”

Cox Health, a local hospital, said on Twitter just after 9 p.m. that it was treating six patients injured in the sinking. Rader later confirmed seven people were injured altogether.

Two adults were in critical condition. Another two adults and three children suffered minor injuries. A spokesperson for the Missouri State Highway Patrol said the dead range in age from 1 to 70 years old.

Divers recovered the last of the victims’ bodies Friday morning, and authorities confirmed that six children and 11 adults had been killed. USA Today reports that nine members of the same Indianapolis family were among them.

“I lost all of my children. I lost my husband. I lost my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. I lost my uncle. I lost my sister-in-law… And I lost my nephew,” survivor Tia Coleman of Indianapolis told the local Fox station. “I’m okay, but this is really hard.”

Coleman also told the outlet the boat captain told passengers not to worry about grabbing life jackets as they boarded.

Authorities have released the names of all 17 people killed:

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader confirmed 31 people had been on the amphibious “duck boat” when it sank. He blamed winds in excess of 60 miles an hour for the accident.

(Update: Before Branson Tragedy, Duck Boats Had History Of Fatal Accidents)

A witness onboard the Branson Belle, a showboat docked nearby, captured video of the duck boat being battered by waves shortly before the accident.

“I see two boats in the water and the waves were just going over the top of the one that sank,” she told the Springfield News-Leader. “It was awful. It looked like he was having trouble. He was going right into the waves but the wind was trying to turn him around.”

Another duck boat was also in the lake during the storm. That one made it safely back to shore. A passenger on that boat shared video of the harrowing ride:


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Personal flotation devices were required to be accessible on the boat, authorities said, but passengers were not required to wear them. It’s unknown how many passengers were able to put on life jackets before the boat overturned or if they had been instructed to do so.

Jim Pattison Jr., president of duck boat-owner Ripley Entertainment, told the New York Times that the thunderstorm was unexpected, saying, “It was almost like a microburst.“

But a meteorologist with the National Weather Service disagreed with that assessment, telling the paper there had been more than half an hour’s warning before the storm struck.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has ordered flags to be flown at half staff at government offices across the state. He posted to Twitter Thursday night, shortly after hearing about the accident:

President Donald Trump also Tweeted about the incident Friday morning:

Branson, located in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri, is a regional tourist destination, featuring stage shows, novelty museums and other family-friendly entertainment. Amphibious tours of Table Rock Lake, an artificial reservoir, are one such popular attraction.

The company offering the tours uses vehicles based on the World War II-era DUKW, commonly called a duck. Appearing as a cross between a bus and a boat, ducks were originally meant to ferry troops from ship to shore during amphibious landings.

The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.

Lead Photo: Emergency responders work at Table Rock Lake after a deadly boat accident in Branson, Mo., Thursday, July 19, 2018. A sheriff in Missouri said a tourist boat has apparently capsized on the lake, leaving several people dead and several others hospitalized. (Nathan Papes/The Springfield News-Leader via Associated Press)

Video via Southern Stone County Fire Protection District

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