21 die after tour boat capsizes in New York lake
Craft carrying 49 on seniors' cruise flips when another boat passes nearby
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. - A tour boat carrying 49 people on a senior citizens cruise overturned Sunday on a lake in upstate New York, killing at least 21 people, the county sheriff said.
Authorities were investigating whether a large passing tour boat created a wake that caused the accident, Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said.
The 40-foot, glass-enclosed Ethan Allen capsized around 3 p.m. on Lake George about 50 miles north of Albany in the Adirondack Mountains.
The accident apparently happened so fast that none of the passengers was able to put on a life jacket, Cleveland said.
By 5 p.m., all passengers had been accounted for. The 21 bodies were laid out along the shore, and the scene was blocked off by police with tarps. The Ethan Allen lay at the bottom of the lake in 70 feet of water.
Weather likely not a factor
At the time of the accident, the weather was clear, calm and in the 70s.
This was as calm as it gets, said Jerry Thornell, who has a summer home in nearby Bolton. Thornell is a former Lake George Park Commission patrol officer and a lake enforcement officer for the county sheriffs department.
Representatives of Shoreline Cruises, which operates the boat, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The boat was carrying a tour group from Canada, Cleveland said. A language barrier was slowing the process of notifying victims families.
Nothing of this magnitude has ever happened, state police Superintendent Wayne Bennett said. Its unprecedented.
Several police boats were on the water, and at least half a dozen divers were in a small cove on the west side of the lake.
Cleveland said the captain, who was well known and well liked by law enforcement officials, survived. He was the only crew member aboard.
