129. The Death Trap (Ride the Ducks Intl.)

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This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

The United States Army calls its newest mobile weapon, the Duck.

Amphibious, two and one-half ton trucks, they operate on land or in water.

Navigating rough seas like Navy barges, the ducks are the last word in mechanized equipment.

Powerful, capable of performing a dozen different operations, the duck has proven itself an efficient weapon against the Axis in Africa and in the South Pacific.

Designed and built in 1942 by the U.S.

military, the DUKW, nicknamed the Duck, was a 31-foot-long, six-and-a-half-ton amphibious truck that could travel on both land and water, tailor-made to transport military personnel and supplies from anchored ships to shore.

The duck's versatility immediately made it an invaluable toll of war, most notably during D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, where the DUKWs proved virtually indispensable under extreme combat conditions.

With its cargo bay empty, the duck could load wounded soldiers and evacuate them to hospital ships anchored offshore.

Drivers were part soldiers, part sailors.

Bilge pumps removed any water that splashed aboard.

But the love affair was short-lived.

After World War II, the U.S.

Army replaced DUKWs with safer, faster, and more technologically advanced amphibious vehicles.

The duckboats were completely phased out by the 1950s, and all surviving units of the 21,000 that were manufactured were sold as surplus, despite offering very little civilian use.

However, one unnamed American entrepreneur soon found a new purpose for the floating bus, commercial tourism.

That visionary accurately predicted millions of passengers around the world embarking on guided tours of a particular locale's lands and waters without leaving their seats.

It was a unique, fun, and educational experience for the whole family.

And safe too, I presume.

A survivor told a local paper the duckboat sank within 30 seconds of taking on water.

This is video from rescue efforts.

The 20 people on board scrambled for life preservers as the duckboat sank in Lake Hamilton.

On May 1st, 1999, a duckboat called the Miss Majestic had just completed the land portion of its 11:30 a.m.

tour of Hot Springs, Arkansas, and was preparing to enter the water at Lake Hamilton.

The captain of the duck, a former school bus driver, briefed her 20 passengers on safety instructions and upcoming sights before engaging the vehicle's propeller and proceeding down the ramp into the water.

Within minutes, a few of the passengers felt their feet getting wet, but dismissed it as a normal occurrence.

It wasn't.

However, the driver was either oblivious or unbothered as she continued to narrate the scenes of the tour.

Finally, about seven minutes into the trip, she noticed the duck was handling sluggishly and sitting uncharacteristically low in the water.

The captain instructed the largest passenger to move from the port side to the starboard side of the vehicle, hoping it was a weight distribution issue.

Just then, water poured over the stern into the passenger compartment.

The driver immediately turned the Miss Majestic around and headed back to shore as the tourists scrambled for their life preservers stowed above them.

Within 30 seconds, the Miss Majestic was completely underwater.

One passenger managed to climb out of the vehicle before it submerged.

Everyone else was trapped inside and took a 51-foot ride down to the bottom of the lake.

There was zero visibility in the green, murky water as Miss Majestic's prisoners frantically searched for a way out.

The boat's captain eventually surfaced, as did five more passengers, including one woman who said she didn't realize someone else's child was clinging to her until she came up for air.

The survivors were pulled out of the water by residents of nearby condo buildings who had witnessed what happened.

Thirteen people were still unaccounted for: seven females, six males, ranging in age from three to fifty.

With each passing minute, the chances of survival dwindled to impossibility.

It took two days to recover the bodies.

Six had floated away from the duckboat and had to be tracked down and retrieved from the bottom.

Seven were found inside the vehicle.

Three were still sitting in their seats, including a mother clutching her three-year-old son in an everlasting embrace.

The National Transportation Safety Board led the investigation into the mismajestic tragedy.

The agency published its findings in 2002.

Land and Lakes Tours Incorporated, the company that owned the duckboat, had failed to adequately repair and maintain the vehicle.

Water had entered the vessel due to a loose driveshaft seal that had not been tightened by a mechanic.

There was also a hole in the rubber seal around the bilge pump, which caused water to be pumped back into the boat instead of out into the lake, which ultimately resulted in the boat sinking.

And these were just a few of Miss Majestic's many deficiencies the NTSB found, none of which had been detected or repaired because Land and Lakes Tours Incorporated did not have a preventive maintenance program in place.

They had no written procedures for conducting maintenance or testing and kept no records pertaining to maintenance or repairs.

Instead, the company relied on a daily visual inspection to determine if its amphibious vessels were seaworthy.

Another failure happened at the federal level, the NTSB said.

Since duckboats operate on both land and water, they are subject to the regulations of multiple agencies, including those governing commercial vehicles.

The U.S.

Coast Guard, however, is the agency responsible for inspecting the water-related aspects of the duckboat.

But since the ducks are uniquely designed and pose safety concerns different from those of conventional vessels, the Coast Guard lacked guidance and training on what to look for, which led to several years of inadequate inspections.

Because these vehicles kind of slip through the cracks in terms of regulation and oversight, you know, is it a bus?

Is it a, you know, a seagoing vessel?

Who really calls the shot?

They tend to get very little scrutiny.

That explains how and why the dugboat sank.

But what contributed to the high loss of life, the NTSB noted, was the dugboat's canopy.

The investigators in that event found that many of the passengers and the operator ended up getting trapped by the vehicle's canopy roof as it was going underwater.

Four victims were recovered from the vehicle's canopy, which acted like a net to entrap them and prevent their vertical escape.

They'd been essentially caged inside.

Survivors told investigators that they had to swim downward and override their body's natural buoyancy to get out alive.

The NTSB also explained that with the canopies in place, life vests, which passengers were not required to wear, would have served as a major impediment to survival.

In the wake of the Miss Majestic tragedy, the Safety Board issued a list of safety recommendations to all duct boat operators in the U.S.

These included implementing a reserve buoyancy mechanism to prevent the boats from sinking in the event of flooding.

Until then, the NTSB recommended removing the canopies and requiring passengers to wear life jackets.

But again, these were only recommendations.

The NTSB does not possess regulatory or enforcement authority.

The NTSB's investigation led to several safety recommendations, including removing the canopies and improving the duck's buoyancy.

The NTSB has no enforcement powers.

But the U.S.

Coast Guard does.

In February 2000, before its investigation was even complete, the NTSB sent a letter to the Coast Guard warning that the potential existed for another life-threatening accident similar to the sinking of the Miss Majestic unless the duckboat's vulnerability to flooding and sinking was corrected.

In response, the Coast Guard did not address the NTSB's recommendations in any meaningful way.

The NTSB also sent letters directly to dozens of duckboat tour operators around the country, which were received just as warmly.

We sent out 30 letters to the operators of the duckboats at that time.

14 of the operators never responded at all.

Those who did respond posed significant pushback to the NTSB's recommendations, citing familiar burdens such as exorbitant costs and touting relatively clean safety histories.

The industry's largest player, Ride the Ducks International, which operated tours in several states, was one of the most vocal.

In the end, nothing changed.

None of the NTSB's safety recommendations were adopted.

No significant regulations were implemented.

The men, women, and children who drowned on the Miss Majestic did so in vain.

You know how they say it takes a tragedy to wake a sleeping system.

Yeah, well, sometimes it takes two.

A duckboat sinks at Branson, Missouri, further exposing an industry's negligence and greed.

On this episode of Swindled,

they bribed government officials to find accounting for violations of the case they law earlierly unethical.

Dummied up its books and records to hide that.

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I have a very close-knit family

on both sides.

My in-laws and my direct family.

I wouldn't say those are my in-laws.

I'd say this is my family.

And I feel like I was just truly blessed to have that,

to have, you know, two families.

Some people don't have one, and I had two families.

Tia Coleman said their family had initially planned to go to Florida for their annual vacation, but her mother-in-law, Belinda, had recently experienced some health issues, so they chose a location closer to home.

During the third week of July 2018, three generations of the Colemans piled into a rented van to make the seven-hour drive from Indianapolis to Branson, Missouri.

Eleven members of the extended family made the trip.

Tia, her husband, Glenn, and their three children, Arya, Evan, and Reese.

Glenn's parents, Belinda and Butch, Glenn's uncle, Irvin, and Glenn's sister, Angela, and her two kids, Donovan and Max.

It was the Coleman family's first time in Branson, which has been nicknamed the live entertainment capital of the world.

It's like the family-friendly Las Vegas of the Midwest.

There are theme parks, musical performances, magic shows, and museums.

There are also numerous outdoor activities in Branson.

One of the most popular attractions at the time was Ride the Ducks.

Ride the Ducks!

Those wacky wacky ducks!

On the land, on the lake.

It's Branson show you've gotta take Ride the Ducks.

It's a mouth of yuckety yuck.

It's a two-ton fun amphibious.

Ride the ducks.

According to its website, Ride the Ducks was the largest amphibious tour operation in the country.

Your duckboat captain will, quote, entertain you with stories of Branson's past and present as you travel through the city and up Baird Mountain before splashing into Table Rock Lake.

The duckboats were a familiar sight around town, and if you couldn't see them, you could certainly hear them.

Every passenger was provided with their very own wacky quacker.

No one said being the entertainment capital of the world was easy.

The Colemans signed up for the 530 tour on the evening of Thursday, July 19th, 2018.

Tia's oldest child, 9-year-old Rhys, was autistic and loved being around the water.

The family agreed that riding a boat would be an enjoyable experience for him without being too overwhelming.

However, when the time came to board the duck, the Colemans discovered they had been standing in the wrong line.

No worries.

There was room for all 11 on Stretch Duck 7, scheduled to depart at 6.30 p.m.

When the time came, the family boarded as Don't Worry, Be Happy played over the duck's speakers.

Captain Kenneth McKee and driver Bob Williams greeted the family as they took their seats.

Tia said she sat in the front row with Rhys.

Her husband Glenn was in another seat holding baby Arya with their middle child Evan sitting beside him.

The rest of the family took places behind them.

Normally, Ride the Duck's tours started on land, but this time the crew let everyone know they'd be hitting the water first.

A severe thunderstorm watch had been issued earlier that day for much of southwest Missouri, including Table Rock Lake.

As the duck prepared to leave, weather reports out of Springfield, 50 miles north, were already mentioning wind and lightning.

But in Branson, not a cloud in sight.

Still, switching up the route seemed like a smart move.

Better safe than sorry.

Speaking of which, another duck boat, ahead of Stretch Duck 7, ran into a minor mechanical issue with its propeller and had to wait while a backup bus came to the rescue.

This pushed back the departure times for everyone, about 20 minutes.

Annoying, but understandable.

Driving a group of people into a lake using defective equipment would be downright irresponsible.

Meanwhile, the incoming storm was intensifying and drawing closer.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for multiple counties, including Stone and Tanney, which included Table Rock Lake and Branson, respectively.

Be advised, some of these strong winds are going to move into your area before the rain gets to you.

So in other words, the stronger winds are on the leading edge of this signature that you see right here, and they're actually moving into Branson.

So there's likely to be some very strong winds in Branson.

And when we've been watching our tower camera, there's actually still some boats out on the lake.

So, if you're watching me now and you know somebody that's out on the lake in a boat, call them, get them to dock any dock, get them off the lake very quickly.

Stretch Duck 7 arrived near the boat ramp at Table Rock Lake around 6:50 p.m.

Captain McKee began this safety briefing for the water portion of the tour, which sounded something like this.

Now, in the event

Our safety record out here is unplummished, and we're gonna keep it that way.

We also have a life ring void right here at the cabinet.

Stretch duck seven entered the water at 6:55 p.m.

The tour proceeded as normal.

Captain McKee pointed out some local aquactions, as they called called them.

Even invited some of the children on board to steer the boat from the captain's seat.

About five minutes into the tour at 7 p.m., conditions on Table Rock Lake changed dramatically.

The strong winds preceding the storm had arrived and began churning up the water, producing white-capped waves on the surface.

Tia Coleman admitted it was fun at first.

The little splashes of water felt good because it had been a very hot day.

It was fine at first and then it started getting rocky

and started, you know, but it was water was splashing inside the boat.

But as we had been told,

the boat can take on

up to 18 foot waves.

It was 18 to 20 feet, I believe.

And so it wasn't really scary.

We were also told that there are life jackets

and they're above you, but you don't need to know where they are because you won't need to use them.

So we didn't.

Waves as high as four feet pounded the duck.

Captain McKee told everyone to remain seated as he lowered the plastic window curtains to prevent water from entering the cabin.

You guys wanted an adventure and now you're getting it, he said in his narration voice.

That was the the last time the captain addressed his passengers.

Captain McKee abandoned the tour and drove the boat straight for the exit ramp.

He made some indistinguishable calls on the radio and switched off the bilge alarm which had been alerting him that water was rising in the boat.

Less than 200 yards away, guests were showing up for their dinner cruise on the showboat Branson Bell.

a big four-deck riverboat with a full-size theater on board.

Because of the stormy forecast, the crew had already decided to keep the bell docked for the night.

As As passengers looked out the windows, expecting to admire the view, they ended up witnessing an unexpected spectacle.

Two duckboats fighting for their lives in the choppy waters of Table Rock Lake.

Stretchduck 54 made progress toward the shore and eventually exited safely.

Stretch Duck 7 struggled, and the wind and waves were getting stronger.

The horrified onlookers could sense the loss of control.

Again, this is Tia Coleman.

The first big wave came in,

it looked like, from what I could tell, it looked like the water just came into the boat, but then it washed out the back.

But when the last big wave came in,

I lost.

I lost

hold of my baby.

A stretched duck 7 was barely managing to stay above water.

Another wave swept over the boat.

The last thing Tia heard was her sister-in-law, Angela, yelling, grab the baby.

But she couldn't.

The boat sank too quickly.

Next thing Tia knew, she was underwater.

Need a water rescue.

We'll be

north of the showboat

We'll be a duck that has capsized.

We have approximately 30 individuals in the water.

When the water filled up the boat, I could no longer see, Tia said, recalling the peer panic.

I couldn't feel anybody.

I couldn't see.

I just remember thinking, I got to get out.

I got to get out.

Tia doesn't really know how she got out of the duckboat, but she did.

She remembers the surrounding water being so cold, which, as she recalled from the tour, meant that she was in deep.

I couldn't find any of my family.

And I swam and I swam.

And it seemed like the more I swam, the further in the water I got.

And

it was so cold.

It was so cold.

Tia tried opening her eyes underwater, but couldn't see anybody.

I couldn't hear anything.

I couldn't hear screams, she said.

The harder she fought the water, the more she felt like she was being pulled down.

And I remember just

praying, saying,

Lord,

let me get to my babies.

Let me get to my babies.

And

I couldn't get to him.

And then

I just let go.

I said, if I can't get to him, just let me go.

Just let me go.

If I can't get to my family, let me go.

Tia let go.

And after what seemed like hours, she stopped swimming.

But suddenly, Tia felt herself floating, and gradually the water got warmer.

Tia had swallowed a ton of water, but remained conscious as she broke the surface.

That first breath of air was so sweet, or rather bittersweet.

I was floating at the top of the water without any of my children, or my husband, or my in-laws.

I didn't have anybody out there.

It was just me.

Come on!

Marine crew, anybody that can read me?

I need a rope on the bow.

One of them is on the side.

One of the ducks sank, and everybody on board here is trying to get them out of the water.

Tia Coleman did see the showboat Branson.

Staff and visitors had sprung into action and had thrown life vests into the water.

A sheriff's deputy, who was working off-duty security, jumped into the lake to help retrieve the duck's passengers.

Others boarded pontoon boats to assist in the rescue.

Tia started swimming towards them.

Westbase, make sure TCA brings our ambulance right to the showboat.

We have injuries.

possible CPR progress.

The first emergency call was received at 7.09 p.m.

EMTs arrived minutes later to a chaotic scene.

There were unconscious bodies on the showboat's deck receiving CPR, other bodies still floating in the water.

One witness remembers seeing a victim bobbing around next to her green purse.

We're just assisting with personnel treating patients.

We have at least six fatalities we're trying to deal with, and we're trying to die for some more missing people uh as we're working on this

and we're treating some obviously the injured ones tia coleman made it out of the water alive before being taken to the hospital to be treated for water in the lungs she'd only seen one of her 10 family members who were on the duckboat with her donovan tia's 13 year old nephew came running up to her He hadn't seen any of the other Colemans either.

We're following breaking news right now in Taney County, a major rescue operation underway on Table Rock Lake where an amphibious boat has apparently capsized and sunk.

It happened during a fierce storm that brought winds well above 50 miles per hour.

This is being called a mass casualty event.

At 9.30 p.m.

that night, Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader held a press conference to provide an update on the rescue and recovery efforts.

He confirmed eight fatalities and seven injuries.

We do have some people still missing, Rader said.

Divers had found the sunken boat.

It had gone wheels down in about 40 feet of water and then slid or rolled into a spot nearly 80 feet deep.

By 9 a.m.

the next morning, the death toll had risen to 13.

Four remained unaccounted for.

Sheriff Rader held another press conference with Missouri Governor Mike Parson by his side to provide the update.

No specific information was available about the deceased.

Good morning.

I just want to take this time.

I know you've all been waiting patiently.

It's been a long night, a long morning.

At this time, we have 13 confirmed fatalities.

Missouri Highway Patrol dive team recovered two more bodies last night.

The Missouri Highway Patrol dive team is going back in the water this morning to

recover the four that we still have missing.

Again, I said it's been a long night and

it's been a very trying night.

Please keep all of our families involved and all of our first responder personnel and thoughts and prayers.

Less than an hour and a half later, all the passengers of Stretch Duck 7 had been recovered.

The city of Branson was in mourning.

A makeshift memorial had formed in the Ride the Ducks parking lot as people left flowers and teddy bears on the deceased passengers' abandoned cars.

We do not want you to remember Branson for the tragic event which has befallen your loved ones, but we would offer our mourning with you so that you would remember that the citizens of our community had a deeper obligation to endure it with you.

The entire Branson community had come together to endure the pain of what happened on Table Rock Lake the previous evening.

Everyone was affected, some in different ways than others.

We want to begin right now first with Thursday night.

Some of you were angry that we interrupted Big Brother to bring you breaking news details about the accident.

Here's some samplings for you.

Teresa contacted us saying, shame on you for interrupting Big Brother for no news.

Christy wrote in saying, are you kidding me?

You're breaking into programming to report a quote boat issue.

Thanks a lot.

Stretch Duck 7 was recovered from the bottom of Table Rock Lake a few days later on July 23rd, 2018.

Two small American flags remained intact on its bow.

Unused life jackets dangled from its frame.

And most unsurprisingly, to anyone familiar with duckboat tragedies, the canopy roof was still in place.

The National Transportation Safety Board took possession of the duckboat to begin its investigation into the tragedy.

Such investigations can take up a year to complete.

But even before the final report, a lot of additional information would come to light, like who the victims were, who or what might be to blame, and how something like this was allowed to happen again.

Meanwhile, an NTSB investigation is underway into the sinking of the duckboat.

Authorities say they want to find out what information the company and the crew knew before they got into the water.

This was a squall that came up rather suddenly.

There's a lot more for us to understand.

A lot more for us to understand.

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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, who is my sister.

She was my sister.

And I lost my nephew.

I'm okay,

but this is really hard.

This is really hard.

Going home is going to be difficult, Tia Coleman told members of the media at a press conference at Cox Medical Center in Branson.

It had been confirmed that nine of the 17 fatalities on Stretch Duck 7 were members of Tia's family, including her husband and three children.

I don't know how I'm going to do it, Tia said.

Since I've had a home, it's always been filled with little feet and laughter.

I don't have anything to say to the owner.

I don't have anything to say to the captain.

To the survivors of the boat,

I'll continue to keep you in my prayers.

I know what you're going through.

To all the lives that were lost,

it was so much.

To all the lives that were lost, I just pray that they're continuing

to live on in their families' hearts.

I'm in so much.

Okay, good day.

All of the victims' names had become public.

Of the six different families on board the duck boat, all but one lost a loved one.

The driver of Stretch Duck 7, Bobby Williams, also perished.

The victims' ages ranged from 1 to 73 years old.

Five are from Missouri, including the driver of the boat.

One is from Illinois, two victims are from Arkansas, and nine are from Indiana.

The Stone County Sheriff's Office provided that list of names last night.

Leslie Dennison, 64 years old from Illinois, was one of the deceased.

She had come to Branson on a special trip with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Alicia.

The duo had dropped their luggage off at the hotel and rushed to ride the ducks just in time to make their scheduled tour.

Leslie reportedly used her final breaths helping Alicia escape.

My mother brought my daughter down for vacation and they were here less than an hour.

Rosemarie Haman was in Branson celebrating her birthday with her partner William Asher.

The Missouri couple, both in their 50s, have been described as the life of the party.

Neither one of them made it off the boat alive.

Pam Smith told the media that she went shopping while her husband Steve took their 15-year-old son Lance and 14-year-old daughter Lauren to ride the duck.

Pam said Steve called her when the boat started taking on water.

He says, it's not good, Pam.

And I told him I loved him.

He told me he loved me.

And I asked him to take care of the kids.

That was our last words.

Lauren was the only member of the Arkansas family to survive.

Thinking, why me?

Why do I have to live?

You've got to live to share your brother's memory and your father.

And you have purpose.

You have a purpose, Lauren.

You've got big things ahead of you.

And God knew I needed you.

William and Janice Bright, a married couple from Missouri, were celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary in Branson.

They claimed it would be their last extended vacation.

William's final Facebook post celebrated his happiness with his wife, three children, and 16 grandchildren.

Life has been a lot of fun, he wrote.

Both William and Janice Bright drowned in the accident.

Williams' sister, Karen Abbott, said she was supposed to meet the couple a day or two later.

I knew nothing about this until this morning at work when my boss was discussing the accident, she said.

Needless to say, I fell apart because I couldn't reach them on cell phones.

Karen expressed her anger over the situation to the Kansas City Star newspaper.

You think this company made mistakes?

I think this company has made mistakes since 1994.

And they have consistently done the same thing.

They take people on water where no one knows how deep it is in a vehicle that goes on land and on water.

They don't make you wear

life jackets.

They say, oh, they're available if you want to put them on, but they don't make you wear it.

They're more concerned about the stupid flax mantles around your throat.

It's ridiculous.

Do you think this company should continue to offer them?

No, I do not.

I think this company should have their ass sued off of them, and every penny they made should be returned to every victim that's ever lost their lives in this.

Hasn't the company reached out to you?

Not a word.

They wouldn't even take calls today.

I called to try and find out if their car was here when I couldn't get an answer on the phone, and no one would tell me anything except take my name and number, and they'd call me back.

Ride the Ducks Branson, which is owned by Ripley Entertainment, the company behind the Believe It or Not brand, suspended operations immediately after the tragedy.

The attraction's website was replaced with a black ribbon and a statement that read, quote, We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident that occurred at Ride the Ducks Branson.

This incident has deeply affected all of us.

Words cannot convey how profoundly our hearts are breaking.

A follow-up statement announced that the company was offering to pay for all related medical bills and funeral expenses, return all personal items from the rescue scene, and assist with any related travel or accommodations that will help the families in their time of need.

Ripley also stated that it was fully cooperating with the NTSB's investigation.

Therefore, they couldn't really comment any further.

However, the company's president, Jim Patterson Jr., had already commented plenty.

What can you say?

You know, we're so sorry.

I mean, that this happened.

It was just

something happened, and we don't know exactly what it was, and we will, but it doesn't matter.

Any time that people suffer a loss like that,

it can't be replaced.

I mean, it's absolutely devastating.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Mr.

Pattinson told CBS News that because of the approaching storm, the dugboat should not have been in the water.

I know, and I don't know, I don't have all the details, but to answer your question no it shouldn't have been in the water if

if

if what happened to Hammond

his opinion soon changed apparently claiming the ferocious squall suddenly came out of nowhere business has been operating for 47 years and we've never had an incident like this or anything close to it shouldn't that boat have been on the water

well I think yes at the time with what we knew then when we knew it it was calm water there was a

fast-moving storm.

It came out of basically

nowhere.

But this, I think, was just a very sudden occurrence.

It had been a very sort of calm experience up until this came very suddenly.

A simple review of the weather alerts and warnings from that day reveals that claim wasn't true.

And the timeline of events released by the NTSB a little more than a week after the incident proved that Ride the Duck's staff was aware of the approaching storm.

A review of video and audio taken aboard Stretch Duck 7 revealed that the crew discussed the weather before the tour.

They swapped the land and water portions, after all.

That fact alone raised questions about the company's culpability.

Attorneys for the victims' families thought so too.

As you saw from the NTSB release on Friday, they reviewed the videotape

and somebody comes to the back of the duck boat and there is a conversation about putting the water portion first.

It is clear that they knew severe weather was coming

and they tried to beat the storm by going on water first

rather than refunding the 40 bucks that each of these people paid, putting their lives at risk.

and lives that they would ultimately lose.

That's Philadelphia accident attorney, Bob Monjaluzzi.

His team filed the first of what would become 33 total civil lawsuits related to the tragedy.

We have known that duckboats are death traps.

It was proven yet again

in devastating fashion in Branson, Missouri.

The plaintiffs included the grieving families, the survivors, and Good Samaritans who had been mentally and physically affected by the horror they experienced.

Combined, they were seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

However, for many, preventing a similar tragedy was the most critical priority.

The one thing I do know is: I never, ever, ever want anybody else to have to feel the pain that I feel and my family feels.

No family, not even my worst enemy, should ever have to experience

what I experience.

The defendants in the lawsuits included Ripley Entertainment and the previous owners of Ride the Ducks Branson.

Other lawsuits named Captain Kenneth McKee as well.

The counts were similar across all the complaints.

The companies involved in the operation had acted negligently, which resulted in the wrongful deaths, injuries, and emotional distress of dozens of people.

In the first filing, Manjaluzzi wrote, This tragedy was the predictable and predicted result of decades of unacceptable, greed-driven, and willful ignorance of safety by the duckboat industry in the face of specific and repeated warnings that their duckboats are death traps for passengers and pose grave danger to the public on water and on land.

Duckboats are sinking coffers, Monjaluzzi added, because of the canopies.

And regardless of whether passengers were wearing life vests or not, quote, they were caged like animals, like putting animals into a cage and putting the cage into the water and drowning them with no way out.

It is outrageous.

And the worst part about it is that for two decades, the defendants have been repeatedly told to change the design of the duckboats to make them safer, but they entirely ignored those warnings.

The very hazard that killed these people, they were warned about, told about, and did nothing about.

That is the horror of this tragedy.

And the only reason why

that I can surmise is money and profit.

In addition to the canopies, Ripley Entertainment specifically was warned about the dangerous design of the Ride the Duck Branson's vehicles as they prepared to acquire the company in August 2017.

Ripley hired an independent third party to inspect the boats before the sale was final.

Stephen Paul from Test Drive Technologies inspected 24 duck boats, including the one that sank on Table Rock Lake, Stretch Duck 7, and found that the exhaust systems were improperly placed at the front of the vehicle.

This meant that in rough conditions, water could enter the exhaust system and then the motor, cutting it off, which might also cause the electric bilge pumps to fail, preventing any intruding water from being extracted from the cabin.

Paul reported his findings to Ripley.

I pretty much gotta thank you for your report, and here's your payment.

Since my inspection, I've convinced my family not to ride the duck.

To make matters worse, those electric bilge pumps at risk of failure might not have been sufficient for their intended purpose to begin with.

The Kansas City Star discovered that those two pumps were only capable of extracting 20 gallons of water or less per minute and that they were actually replacements for a device called a Higgins pump, sometimes referred to as a super bilge, which could discharge 250 gallons of water per minute in extreme conditions.

The Higgins pump was one of a duck boat's main safety features, yet in 2005, Ride the Ducks International asked for permission from the U.S.

Coast Guard to replace them on all its vehicles because they were from the original World War II-era design and difficult to maintain.

The Coast Guard approved Ride the Ducks' request, but with conditions.

1.

The boats were not to operate on the lake if waves exceeded two feet.

Additionally, the primary source of flooding should be isolated to a watertight compartment with shutoff valves that could be activated to prevent water from entering the hole and overwhelming the pumps.

Ride the Ducks International agreed to those conditions, but never complied.

The company later argued that the shutoff valves weren't necessary because, quote, the vessels operate on a restricted route, no more than 30 minutes and less than 1,000 feet from shore, and in the unlikely event of an uncontrollable flooding, the master would take advantage of the close proximity to shore and make every effort to reach it.

And the Coast Guard said, Fair enough.

After carefully considering the current route, your unique operation, safety record, and the concerns outlined in your request, your appeal for special consideration is approved.

Ride the Ducks International was the duckboat experts, after all.

Robert McDowell, the founder and president of the company at the time, practically invented the tourist duckboat.

In the late 1970s, McDowell conceived the idea of elongating the World War II-era vehicle to provide more passenger room by cutting the chassis in half and installing a section of frame from a surplus truck.

Sure, he had no formal engineering experience or training, but he did consult with a football coach and employees at a U-Haul and auto parts store.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to just design a brand new vehicle that was actually built for commercial tours?

Probably.

But as Robert McDowell admitted, part of the reason they stuck with the old 1940s duck chassis was because it was grandfathered in, meaning it didn't have to meet modern safety or emission standards.

No bumpers, no airbags, no anti-lock brakes.

and no legal requirement to include them.

Robert McDowell continued to purchase duck duckboats and alter them with used axles and other parts he salvaged from the junkyard.

By the 1980s, Ride the Ducks International, which was headquartered in Branson, was considered the most experienced and proven manufacturer in the duckboat industry.

It was the only duckboat tour operator with its own factory.

In the 1990s, the Branson facility became the headquarters for other Ride the Ducks franchises that began popping up in cities across the country, including Boston, Baltimore, Memphis, Philadelphia, and Seattle.

In fact, much of this operational information came from the testimony Robert McDowell gave while defending the company in a 2015 lawsuit filed in Seattle.

A group of plaintiffs was seeking damages from an incident involving Stretch Duck 6.

If you are just joining us here, we are interrupting programming to bring you this breaking news from over Seattle.

This is the Aurora Bridge.

It was about 11.13.

This crash on the Aurora Bridge southbound, it has happened as you can see there on the right between a Ride the Ducks vehicle, tour vehicle, and a charter bus.

I saw the wheel give away

and

then from that point on he lost control of the duck.

The duck bus came across my lane and hit the other bus.

It all happened so fast.

I got out of my car and there were just bodies just everywhere.

It stunk.

You could smell blood.

You know, people were hurt and bleeding and blood stinks.

It broadsided a chartered bus carrying a reported 48 passengers from six countries.

51 people were injured and taken to area hospitals, more than a dozen in critical condition.

The owner of the Ride the Ducks tour company says his vehicles have clean safety records.

We pass with flying colors all the time.

We go way above what is ever required by the DOT or the Coast Guard.

Way above it.

On September 25th, 2015, an out-of-control duck boat in Seattle crossed the center line of the Aurora Bridge in the oncoming traffic, crashing into a charter bus carrying a group of international students.

Five people were killed.

69 others were injured.

The resulting NTSB investigation confirmed that Ride the Ducks International was to blame.

We now know that vehicle did not have a repair that was recommended two years ago.

For two years, the company was aware of a defect with the front axles of its duckboats that caused them to fail and break, which is exactly what happened to Stretch Duck 6 on the Seattle Bridge.

The parent company alerted its franchises nationwide, but never ordered a recall, confirmed that proper repairs had been made, or notified regulators of the issue.

The Seattle axle fracture was the fourth case of its kind.

The National Transportation Safety Board found that the front steering knuckle assembly was poorly designed, that it had failed, and the company that rebuilt the ducts from old World War II amphibious trucks was operating as a vehicle manufacturer, but under the radar of federal oversight.

Ride the Ducks International ended up paying a $1 million civil fine for breaking federal safety rules, and a jury later awarded $123 million to victims of the accident.

That huge payout came on the heels of another legal settlement involving the family of 68-year-old Elizabeth Carnicki, who was killed just four months earlier in Philadelphia when a Ride the Ducks vehicle on land crushed her to death in front of her husband.

That accident was blamed on the ducks' massive blind spots.

After that, insurance premium skyrocketed by 330%,

and the company withdrew from Philly altogether.

Because that wasn't the first fatal duckboat accident to happen in the city of brotherly love.

Five years earlier, in July 2010, A ride the duck boat full of tourists overheated soon after it entered the Delaware River near Penn's Landing.

The ducks operator dropped an anchor in the middle of a commercial shipping channel, and moments later, a tugboat-guided barge, captained by a man distracted by his phone, plowed into the duckboat.

Most of the passengers jumped into the river before the duckboat sank.

Unfortunately, two Hungarian tourists, one of whom was a competitive swimmer, became trapped in the canopy and were dragged down with the vessel.

Police have retrieved a second body from the Delaware River after they recovered the duckboat that was struck by barge and capsized, leaving two young hungarians missing authorities confirm one of the bodies is that of a 16-year-old hungarian tourist her body was recovered early friday nearly two miles downriver from the accident site meantime the tour boat was lifted from the water by a massive crane the boat's canopy clearly damaged

at the time ride the ducks international dismissed concerns about the defective design of its boats

It was a safe tour before.

We'd done over 30 years and millions of passengers and hundreds of thousands, millions of trips without even a wet shoelace.

So what we did after the accident is we stopped and made sure that we were safe and we tweaked where we felt it was right to do that.

And we made a lot of voluntary improvements that the Coast Guard and the city both supported.

Attorney Bob Manjaluzzi's firm represented the families of the deceased tourist in a lawsuit following the accident, which resulted in a settlement of $17 million.

He hoped to achieve similar results for his clients in Branson.

We drove them out of Philadelphia, and with this lawsuit, we hope to drive the death trap duckboats out of business, Manjaluzzi said.

If duckboats are banned, what kind of effect would that have on Branson's tourism economy?

Someone asked Manjaluzzi at the press conference announcing the lawsuit.

It would only help, the lawyer suggested.

Well, the Branson duckboats are owned by Ripleys,

and believe it or not,

you don't promote tourism by killing tourists.

Ripley denied being at fault for what happened in Branson.

The loss of Stretchduck 7 and those on board was not the result of neglect by the company or its employees, they argued.

The vessel was properly maintained and in compliance with Coast Guard regulations.

No, what happened in Branson was simply, quote, an unforeseeable and unintentional occurrence, the company claimed.

But just in case it wasn't, Ripley revealed the trick up its sleeve, a maritime law from 1851 called the Limitation of Liability Act, which limits a shipowner's damages and a casualty to the value of the sunken vessel.

In this case, the value of the sunken vessel, stretched duck 7, was zero.

In other words, if the courts agreed that Ripley Entertainment is protected by the Limitations of Liability Act and that the sunken duck boat has no value, plaintiffs would be entitled to nothing.

All civil litigation was put on hold until the court made that determination.

And in January 2020, a federal judge shut Ripley down.

The court ruled that the Limitation of Liability Act did not apply to their case because Table Rock Lake wasn't a navigable waterway as required under the law.

It isn't used for shipping goods or transporting people across state lines, just fishing and recreation.

That decision lifted a freeze on the civil lawsuits, allowing Discovery to move forward.

And soon after, all the civil suits were settled privately for undisclosed amounts.

But a whole other legal battle was still unfolding.

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We are here today to announce the first criminal indictment related to the sinking of a vessel on Table Rock Lake in southwest Missouri resulting in the tragic loss of 17 lives.

This morning a federal grand jury seated in Springfield, Missouri returned an indictment against Kenneth Scott McKee, who is the captain of a vessel dubbed Stretch Duck 7, which sank during a storm on Table Rock Lake in July.

The indictment alleges 17 counts of a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1115, which is formally titled Misconduct or Neglect of Ship Officers, but which is sometimes colloquially referred to as Seaman's Manslaughter.

On November 8th, 2018, U.S.

Attorney Tim Garrison announced that Captain Kenneth Scott McKee, 51, had been indicted by a federal grand jury for his role in the sinking of Stretch Duck 7 on Table Rock Lake.

The Coast Guard had initially convened a Marine Board of Investigation, but within three weeks, it referred the case to the Department of Justice for potential criminal charges.

McKee was charged with 17 counts of seamen's manslaughter.

If convicted, he faced up to 10 years in federal prison for each count, along with fines of up to $250,000.

Prosecutors alleged that Kenneth McKee failed to properly assess the incoming storm before and after the boat entered the water.

And the operated Stretch Duck 7 in violation of its Coast Guard-issued certificate of inspection, he took the vessel out in conditions with wind speeds and wave heights beyond what the boat was rated to handle.

During the storm, he did not instruct passengers to wear life jackets and failed to raise the plastic side curtains after lowering them, even as water began to fill the boat.

Despite two separate bilge alarm warnings, the captain did not tell passengers to prepare to abandon ship.

Witnesses later testified that McKee did attempt to raise the windows to let people escape, managing to lift one before being swept out of the boat by the rushing water.

This indictment represents the beginning and not the end of our efforts in this matter, Garrison said.

True to the U.S.

Attorney's word, on June 20th, 2019, federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment, adding 13 more counts against McKee for negligent operation of a vessel, one for each survivor.

The new indictment also charged two more Ride the Ducks employees, Curtis P.

Lanham, 36, the general manager of Ride the Ducks Branson, and Charles V.

Botzell, 76, the operations supervisor who was acting as manager on duty the day of the incident.

Lanham and Botzell were each charged with 17 counts of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer and 13 counts of negligent operation.

Botzell was accused of allowing Stretchduck 7 to launch despite severe weather warnings, failing to monitor incoming storms and not relaying critical information to McKee.

He also allegedly failed to supervise the tour or respond appropriately as conditions worsened.

Lanham, who held overall responsibility for day-to-day operations, was accused of fostering a workplace culture where profits were prioritized over safety.

According to the indictment, he failed to implement adequate training for monitoring weather, did not enforce safety policies related to storm conditions, and failed to ensure that captains received timely weather updates.

All three men pleaded not guilty.

McKee's trial was scheduled for December 2nd, 2019.

Until then, more clarity on the accident would be revealed.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a new report today.

It says the board urged the Coast Guard to fix several safety issues after an Arkansas deathboat accident killed 13 people in 1999.

That includes removing obstacles like canopies to help passengers better escape.

In November 2019, the National Transportation Safety Board once again urged the U.S.

Coast Guard to adopt long-ignored safety regulations for DUKW-style amphibious passenger vessels, rules the NTSB had first recommended nearly 20 years earlier.

Since 1999, the agency had issued 22 safety recommendations specifically aimed at modified World War II-era duck boats, but by the time Stretch Duck 7 sank on Table Rock Lake in 2018, only nine of those recommendations had been fully addressed or exceeded.

Contributing to the sinking was the Coast Guard's failure to require sufficient reserve buoyancy in amphibious vessels.

Contributing to the loss of life was the Coast Guard's ineffective action to address emergency egress

on amphibious passenger vessels with fixed canopies such as the Stretch Duck 7, which impeded passenger escape.

At the NTSP's final meeting on the Branson Duck Boat tragedy held over Zoom on April 28, 2020, Investigators laid out a damning summary of what went wrong.

They concluded that the failure to avoid an approaching storm, combined with the failure to adopt those long-standing safety recommendations, were key factors that led to the sinking of Stretchduck 7, which killed 17 of the 31 people on board.

The report also compared Stretchduck 7 to another vessel on the lake that day, Stretchduck 54.

That boat faced the same conditions but managed to make it safely to shore.

The difference, Stretchduck 54, was a newer model with better reserve buoyancy and a stronger, securable front hatch that helped keep water out of the engine compartment.

Extra protection that, likely, made all the difference.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt pointed out that this wasn't the first time they'd seen a tragedy like this.

There were many similarities between that sinking and the one we are considering today, he said, referencing the 1999 Miss Majestic disaster.

The NTSB issued several recommendations in connection to the sinking of the Miss Majestic that were never acceptably acted upon.

And, as in duckboat accidents passed, the NTSB's latest report noted that if passengers on Stretch Duck 7 had been wearing life jackets, it might have actually made things worse.

The NTSB credited the crew and passengers of the nearby showboat Branson Bell for taking quick action that may have helped prevent even more deaths.

Chairman Sumwalt closed the meeting with an interesting anecdote.

You know, when I think of amphibious vessels, we certainly think of

World War II and the invasion of Normandy on D-Day,

June the 6th, 1944.

What people don't know, what many people don't know, is the invasion was originally scheduled for June the 5th.

The Allies had to wait a day for better weather before they could proceed.

Well,

if D-Day had to pause for safety, so can

recreational tours.

We stand adjourned.

Thank you very much.

Neglect and misconduct charges against three employees connected with a deadly duck boat accident on Table Rock Lake have all been dismissed.

The accident happened in the summer of 2018.

17 people died when the boat sank during a storm.

In December 2020, federal charges against the three Red the Ducks employees were dismissed.

For the charges to stick, like the limited liability maritime law that Ripley invoked during the civil lawsuits, Table Rock Lake needed to be classified as a navigable waterway, something the court again ultimately rejected.

Without that classification, federal prosecutors didn't have jurisdiction.

However, they noted that state prosecutors were still free to bring their own case if they chose to.

And they did.

On April 5, 2022, Missouri state prosecutors filed similar charges against all three men.

And during the preliminary hearing, the defense called forensic meteorologist Stephen Harned to the stand.

He walked the court through the radar data from the hours leading up to the tragedy and explained that the storm was preceded by a gust front nearly 20 miles ahead of the main system, something that wasn't visible on the radar ride the Ducks was using at the time.

Based on the available data, Harned testified, the duck boat operators would have believed they still had about 20 minutes before the worst of the storm hit.

In hindsight, it is evident the defendants did not have enough weather information to appreciate the threat of high winds, Judge Alan Blankenship wrote, siding with the defense.

He ruled there wasn't enough evidence to move forward and dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning charges could technically be refiled.

Missouri's Attorney General, Eric Schmidt, refiled identical charges almost immediately.

We've now learned that Missouri's Attorney General has filed new charges in that deadly duckboat sinking in Branson, Missouri that killed nine members of an Indianapolis family.

This all comes just a week after a judge dismissed the 63 remaining charges against them.

This summer will mark the four-year anniversary since 17 people were killed when that tourist boat sank during an intense storm.

More than three years have passed since those criminal charges were filed, and no progress has been made.

In March 2025, Captain Kenneth McKee requested that the court dismiss the case, citing procedural and evidentiary issues that would arise ahead of further hearings.

The charges are still active as of now, but the case has all but stalled.

No trial date has been scheduled.

One notable development, however, is the return of duck boats to Branson, Missouri.

Duckboats are returning to Branson four years after a tragedy killed 17 people.

A new company called Branson Duck Tours announced on their website that they will not be using the original duckboats, but instead use a type of amphibious vehicle that's been rated by the Coast Guard not to sink.

Ride the Ducks Branson never never reopened after the tragedy on Table Rock Lake.

Ripley Entertainment repurposed its property into Ripley's Superfun Park, which houses mazes, laser tag, and other very safe games.

The closure of Ride the Ducks left a giant, amphibious vessel-sized hole in Branson's tourist offerings, however, but not for long.

A new company, Branson Duck Tours, resurrected the fun in 2022.

Unfortunately, without the wacky quackers.

I know.

Instead, Instead, Branson Duck Tours passengers get a crazy quacker.

There's a big difference.

And, an even better news, this is not a duck boat, one of the co-founders assured.

The new and improved vehicle was called a Hydroterra, designed specifically for the amphibious tour industry.

It has a foam-filled hole that makes the vessel, quote, unsinkable.

Branson Duck Tours couldn't use the type of duck boat that Ride the Ducks was using in 2018, even if they wanted to.

The U.S.

Congress finally passed legislation at the end of 2022 to tighten safety rules for amphibious vessels, which included provisions such as the removal of canopies, buoyancy requirements, and other recommendations from the NTSB.

The original bill was drafted by Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill four years earlier, immediately after the Table Rock Lake tragedy.

However, McCaskill lost re-election later that year, so the bill sat stagnant until her successor, Josh Hawley, picked it back up and took credit for it.

The duckboat bill wasn't passed until it was included in an $858 billion national defense spending bill, which Senator Josh Hawley and fellow Republican Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, who had also worked on the bill, voted against.

Now that's government in action.

And the U.S.

Coast Guard, as well, was right on time.

The new rules come from the U.S.

Coast Guard.

They require the removal of window coverings and canopies that could keep people from escaping if a boat sinks.

They also include requirements for passengers to wear personal flotation devices, also requirements for alarms and pumps.

They strengthen inspection regulations.

However, the rules only apply to repurposed World War II-era Army vessels.

Right now, only 16 of those vessels are still in use.

Well, somebody told me

that when they found my husband, he had all three of my babies.

So the reason I couldn't find them is because he was protecting them.

That right there

will keep me fighting for my family forever.

The memory of all of my family.

It took a while, but these are the exact kind of changes that Tia Coleman had been campaigning for since the tragedy took the lives of her nine family members.

The years following had been hard, to say the least.

Tia said there had been times when she's jolted awake, thinking she forgot to wake up the kids for school, and how sometimes she expects them to call out to her when she walks through the front door, but nothing greets her but an empty house and the sad reality sets in.

Quote, I just hear silence.

I have no more children.

The love of my life is gone.

Why am I here, Lord?

But somehow, she's carried on.

Tia said the turning point came for her when she finally visited her family's graves four years after the tragedy.

It was like they had given her permission to move forward.

In recent years, Tia has shifted her focus from legal battles to emotional healing and advocacy.

She's now dedicating her time to helping others navigate grief and trauma.

She speaks at events centered on hope, healing, and honoring the memory of those we've lost.

Her talks don't dwell on the day of the accident.

They're about what comes comes after, surviving, remembering, and eventually moving forward.

As she put it, healing is possible, even after unimaginable loss.

Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, aka deformer, aka Mr.

Majestic.

For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at SwindledPodcast.

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That's it.

Thanks for listening.

Hello.

My name is Aaron from Arkansas.

Hello.

My name is Jamie.

from Greensboro, North Carolina.

Hello.

My name is Laura.

I'm from Northumberland in the UK.

UK, I am a consultant

and evaluationist.

And second term, America.

What the fuck are you doing to yourselves and to the rest of us?

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