Mourners leave flowers for duck boat victims as officials probe for answers

Morgan Watkins, Wyatt D. Wheeler, and Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY NETWORK

Show Caption Hide Caption Community mourns the 17 lives lost in Branson, Missouri duck boat accident Hundreds of community members gathered for a vigil in Branson, Missouri for the 17 people, 9 of them from one family, who died suddenly when a duck boat capsized.

BRANSON, Mo. — It began with a single flower placed on each car left overnight on the parking lot at Ride the Ducks Branson, the company that owned the amphibious tourist boat that took its final fateful ride on storm-tossed Table Rock Lake.

The high winds and 5-foot waves, seemingly emerging from a quiet summer evening, capsized the boat Thursday evening, killing 17 people, ranging in age from 1 to 70 and including nine relatives visiting from Indiana.

By late Friday night, the hoods of two remaining cars were overfilled with flowers, with space left only on the tops of the vehicles and on the ground around them for folks to add to the collection.

Surrounding a vehicle shared by two of the victims, hundreds gathered to pay their respects and mourn those lost Thursday night. Fourteen people survived.

The majority of the those paying their respects during the quiet vigil didn't know the victims, but said Branson, a popular tourist destination, is a family, and coming together is what the town is all about.

Leading the candlelit vigil was Zach Klein — a field technician for the Taney County Sewer District — who didn't personally know the people he came there to honor. But when he was given the opportunity to speak, he didn't turn it down.

He talked for five minutes to the crowd of people wiping away tears or holding their loved ones close.

"Right now, we're in a time to mourn," Klein said. "We don't know when we're going to go meet our heavenly father. Be there for the people who need you when they need you."

The end of his speech brought prayers and song: "Amazing Grace" and "God Bless America."

Avery Schamber, a 20-year-old who lives nearby and also works at the Branson Belle, stood near one of the cars in the Ride the Ducks lot with a small bouquet of flowers, quietly paying her respects to the people who died.

"They came for vacation and their worst nightmares happened," she said.

That's what brought the Coleman family down from Indianapolis. What was supposed to be a joyful family vacation ended with the deaths of nine relatives from three generations.

The deaths and identities of the family members – including four children under the age of 10 – were confirmed by The Indianapolis Star via family members Friday evening.

"They were very loved," said Ingrid Coleman Douglas in a telephone interview.

The victims included her two uncles, aunt, cousins and their children. "It’s a huge family on all sides. It’s unimaginable. I would never have thought I would have lost this number of people this way."

Tia Coleman, one of the survivors, told WXIN-TV in Indianapolis that she and a nephew were among the 11 relatives. Coleman says she lost “all my children” but she did not say how many.

More: Duck boat tragedy: These are the nine Indianapolis family members who died

More: Here are the 17 victims of the Branson duck boat tragedy

More: Before accident in Branson, Missouri, duck boats had history of fatalities

More: 'Death traps': Federal officials have warned about dangers from duck boats for 2 decades

She says the captain of the boat told passengers, “Don’t worry about grabbing the life jackets – you won’t need them.” By the time it was clear that life jackets were needed, she says, “it was too late.”

The extended Coleman family likely wouldn’t have been on the ill-fated trip but for a ticket mix-up. Tracy Beck, of Kansas City, Missouri, said she recalled the family members waiting in line. After they stopped for a picture, a ticket taker realized they should have boarded at a different location and reassigned them, the Associated Press reports.

While a severe thunderstorm had hit around the time of the boat's capsizing, causing the 5-foot waves on Table Rock Lake, much of what specifically caused the boat to sink – while other vessels withstood the harsh conditions – is unclear. Teams found the boat sitting upright on its wheels in 80-feet of water.

A second duck boat on the lake in southwest Missouri, about 225 miles southwest of St. Louis, made it safely to shore.

The U.S. military in World War II originally used duck boats to transport troops and supplies, and they were later modified for use as sightseeing vehicles.

Officials at the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident, said it could be a year or longer before all the answers are found.

NTSD board member Early Weener said investigators would release a preliminary report within a month that could provide some information about what happened.

Jim Pattison Jr., president of Ripley Entertainment that owns the duck boat business, says the captain operating the boat had 16 years of experience, and the business monitors weather.

He told The Associated Press that the water was calm and flat when the amphibious vehicle arrived at the lake, but a sudden storm emerged and “turned it into turbulence.”

Pattison said his company is “sad” and “devastated” by the deaths. The driver of the boat was among the dead.

Duck boats, which can travel on land and in water, have been involved in other deadly incidents in the past. Five college students were killed in 2015 in Seattle when a duck boat collided with a bus, and 13 people died in 1999 when a duck boat sank near Hot Springs, Arkansas.

In 2010, a distracted tug boat pilot, who had been on his cellphone or laptop because of a family emergency, rammed a barge into a stalled duck boat in the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, throwing 35 people into the water. Two Hungarian students died in the incident.

“Duck boats are death traps,” said Andrew Duffy, an attorney whose Philadelphia law firm handled litigation related to two fatal duck boat accidents there. “They’re not fit for water or land because they are half car and half boat.

Watkins and Wheeler report for the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. Stanglin reported from McLean, Va.