Tour boat crash sends passengers flying into the Delaware River. CBS
Tour boat crash sends passengers flying into the Delaware River.
CBS
1 of 1
Several dozen passengers were rescued and two teenagers are missing after a tour boat overturned in the Delaware River Wednesday afternoon.
Chopper 3 HD was over the 500 block of South Columbus Boulevard after reports an accident involving a "duck boat" just after 2:39 p.m.
Accounts from the scene say a barge being pushed by a tugboat collided with the popular tourist attraction in the water near Penn's Landing.
"It looked the like the duck split into two and the barge rolled on over it," said eyewitness Tiffany Michaels, a tourist from Virginia who was taking photos at the time of the crash.
Witnesses say passengers attempted to get the tugboat's attention, but were forced to jumped into the river as the barge struck the boat.
The U.S. Coast Guard says 35 people have been rescued so far, but a 17-year-old female and 19-year-old male remain missing.
Four people have been transported to Hahnemann University Hospital, but their conditions are unknown. Two others are being treated at area hospitals.
The Captain of the Port of Philadelphia has closed the river to all traffic between the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin bridges until further notice.
Duck boats are amphibious vehicles used on popular sightseeing tours of Philadelphia landmarks. The tour begins at 6th and Market and enters the Delaware River at Penn's Landing.
Ride The Ducks began in Branson, Missouri in 1977 and expanded to Philadelphia in 2003, according to their website. Currently, they have a fleet of 90 vehicles that carry 1.2 million passengers a year nationwide.
Stay with CBS 3 and CBS3.com for the latest on this breaking story.
Barge hits tourist boat in the Delaware; 35 rescued, 2 missing
This story was reported by Gloria Campisi, Stephanie Farr, Jan Ransome, Christine Olley, Catherine Lucey, Natalie Pompilio, Regina Medina, Jason Nark, Ronnie Polaneczky and Dafney Tales. It was written by Will Bunch.
THEY CAME to see Philadelphia from around the nation and the other side of the world.
They were families who brought their kids from St. Louis or North Carolina, or touring teens from Hungary, finding what seemed like a cool way to see Philly in the middle of the worst heat wave in years.
But roughly an hour after 37 people set out for a midafternoon Delaware River ride on the amphibious tour vehicle called the Duck boat, everything started going wrong.
There was an engine fire, and the Ride the Ducks boat stalled out. The watercraft drifted, powerless in the Delaware. The Center City skyline loomed behind them, hazy behind the waves of 103-degree heat, and crew members told the tourists to hang tight - a rescue boat was on the way.
One of the passengers called her husband to tell him what was going on, that the Duck boat was dead in the water - and then suddenly the husband heard a scream. The phone went dead.
It was 2:39 p.m.
On the riverbank near Penn's Landing, Meg Scharpf, a tourist from Phoenix, saw what the husband on the phone could not see - a massive 250-foot barge, pushed by a tugboat and seemingly headed right toward the listless watercraft.
At first, Scharpf said, everyone on the boat appeared from the shore to be relaxed, even laughing. The Arizonan thought to herself there was no way the barge could strike the tourist-packed vessel, but that is exactly what happened. Some on the shore were yelling frantically toward the tug: "There's a boat! There's a boat!"
"There was nothing they could do," Scharpf said. "It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. Everybody seemed to disappear and then they all started popping up with their life vest on."
Except that many had just a few seconds to get those life vests on - and not everybody made it.
"I pushed my [9-year-old] daughter over the side of the boat and tried to get the life jacket on her and I grabbed her by her hair as the boat rolled over on top of us," said one of the passengers, Kevin Grace, 50, of St. Louis. "It was really chaotic. It was flailing bodies everywhere and water and air bubbles."
Not everyone was as fortunate as Grace and his daughter. Until last night, police divers searched the murky waters and the watercraft - which capsized and sank 50 feet to the river bottom - looking for two passengers not accounted for.
The two were reported to be young tourists from the Hungarian group - a 20-year-old man and a 16-year old girl.
The 35 other passengers and crew were plucked from the fast-moving Delaware current, some by helicopter and some grabbing onto a hose. Ten of the passengers - some visibly shaken - were rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital but none of their injuries were serious. Two declined treatment and the rest had been released by last night. The others were treated at Penn's Landing, many at the Independence Seaport Museum.
City officials said the massive barge that struck the tourist-laden Duck boat, the Resource, was owned by the city but operated by a contractor, K-Sea Transportation. The barge hauls sludge from a biofuels plant in Northeast Philadelphia to a recycling plant in Southwest Philly.
Ride the Ducks, owned by Herschend Family Entertainment Co., of Norcross, Ga., runs similar land-and-water tours across the country and said it had never had an accident of this type before.
Nevertheless, the apparent Philadelphia tragedy is certain to rekindle the debate over the safety of tours using the amphibious vehicles that were developed for World War II.
In 1999, a Duck boat operated by a different company sank rapidly in Lake Hamilton, Ark., as the overhead canopy trapped passengers, 13 of whom died.
Here in Philadelphia, a new Duck-boat disaster may raise fresh questions about the intersection of tourism and industry on the busy and sometimes crowded Delaware - an intersection that may have turned deadly in a matter of seconds yesterday.
Teens Missing After River Tour Boat Crash
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3)CBS
Chopper 3 HD was over the 500 block of South Columbus Boulevard after reports an accident involving a "duck boat" just after 2:39 p.m.
Accounts from the scene say a barge being pushed by a tugboat collided with the popular tourist attraction in the water near Penn's Landing.
"It looked the like the duck split into two and the barge rolled on over it," said eyewitness Tiffany Michaels, a tourist from Virginia who was taking photos at the time of the crash.
Witnesses say passengers attempted to get the tugboat's attention, but were forced to jumped into the river as the barge struck the boat.
The U.S. Coast Guard
Four people have been transported to Hahnemann University Hospital, but their conditions are unknown. Two others are being treated at area hospitals.
The Captain of the Port of Philadelphia has closed the river to all traffic between the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin bridges until further notice.
Duck boats are amphibious vehicles used on popular sightseeing tours of Philadelphia landmarks. The tour begins at 6th and Market and enters the Delaware River at Penn's Landing.
Ride The Ducks began in Branson, Missouri in 1977 and expanded to Philadelphia in 2003, according to their website. Currently, they have a fleet of 90 vehicles that carry 1.2 million passengers a year nationwide.
Stay with CBS 3 and CBS3.com for the latest on this breaking story.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Hungarian tourist........two teens missing.
Engine fire on the duck........it drifted into the path of the barge.
Barge hits tourist boat in the Delaware; 35 rescued, 2 missing
This story was reported by Gloria Campisi, Stephanie Farr, Jan Ransome, Christine Olley, Catherine Lucey, Natalie Pompilio, Regina Medina, Jason Nark, Ronnie Polaneczky and Dafney Tales. It was written by Will Bunch.
THEY CAME to see Philadelphia from around the nation and the other side of the world.
They were families who brought their kids from St. Louis or North Carolina, or touring teens from Hungary, finding what seemed like a cool way to see Philly in the middle of the worst heat wave in years.
But roughly an hour after 37 people set out for a midafternoon Delaware River ride on the amphibious tour vehicle called the Duck boat, everything started going wrong.
There was an engine fire, and the Ride the Ducks boat stalled out. The watercraft drifted, powerless in the Delaware. The Center City skyline loomed behind them, hazy behind the waves of 103-degree heat, and crew members told the tourists to hang tight - a rescue boat was on the way.
One of the passengers called her husband to tell him what was going on, that the Duck boat was dead in the water - and then suddenly the husband heard a scream. The phone went dead.
It was 2:39 p.m.
On the riverbank near Penn's Landing, Meg Scharpf, a tourist from Phoenix, saw what the husband on the phone could not see - a massive 250-foot barge, pushed by a tugboat and seemingly headed right toward the listless watercraft.
At first, Scharpf said, everyone on the boat appeared from the shore to be relaxed, even laughing. The Arizonan thought to herself there was no way the barge could strike the tourist-packed vessel, but that is exactly what happened. Some on the shore were yelling frantically toward the tug: "There's a boat! There's a boat!"
"There was nothing they could do," Scharpf said. "It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. Everybody seemed to disappear and then they all started popping up with their life vest on."
Except that many had just a few seconds to get those life vests on - and not everybody made it.
"I pushed my [9-year-old] daughter over the side of the boat and tried to get the life jacket on her and I grabbed her by her hair as the boat rolled over on top of us," said one of the passengers, Kevin Grace, 50, of St. Louis. "It was really chaotic. It was flailing bodies everywhere and water and air bubbles."
Not everyone was as fortunate as Grace and his daughter. Until last night, police divers searched the murky waters and the watercraft - which capsized and sank 50 feet to the river bottom - looking for two passengers not accounted for.
The two were reported to be young tourists from the Hungarian group - a 20-year-old man and a 16-year old girl.
The 35 other passengers and crew were plucked from the fast-moving Delaware current, some by helicopter and some grabbing onto a hose. Ten of the passengers - some visibly shaken - were rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital but none of their injuries were serious. Two declined treatment and the rest had been released by last night. The others were treated at Penn's Landing, many at the Independence Seaport Museum.
City officials said the massive barge that struck the tourist-laden Duck boat, the Resource, was owned by the city but operated by a contractor, K-Sea Transportation. The barge hauls sludge from a biofuels plant in Northeast Philadelphia to a recycling plant in Southwest Philly.
Ride the Ducks, owned by Herschend Family Entertainment Co., of Norcross, Ga., runs similar land-and-water tours across the country and said it had never had an accident of this type before.
Nevertheless, the apparent Philadelphia tragedy is certain to rekindle the debate over the safety of tours using the amphibious vehicles that were developed for World War II.
In 1999, a Duck boat operated by a different company sank rapidly in Lake Hamilton, Ark., as the overhead canopy trapped passengers, 13 of whom died.
Here in Philadelphia, a new Duck-boat disaster may raise fresh questions about the intersection of tourism and industry on the busy and sometimes crowded Delaware - an intersection that may have turned deadly in a matter of seconds yesterday.
Read more: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100708_Barge_hits_tourist_boat_in_the_Delaware__35_rescued__2_missing.html#ixzz0t74nfn8A
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