Trial Graphics: Wrongful Death DUKW, Duck Boat
Trial Graphics: Wrongful Death DUKW, Duck Boat
"Shipwreck"
Extreme Evidence
Court TV
3D Animations: TMBA, Inc.
Miss Majestic, a World War II-vintage duck boat was on a regular excursion tour with an operator and 20 passengers on board. 7 minutes after entering Lake Hamilton, water started to flood the hull. In less than 30 seconds, the boat sank in 60 feet of water. One passenger escaped before the vehicle submerged but the remaining passengers and the operator were trapped by the vehicle's canopy roof and drawn under water. Six passengers and the operator were able to escape. The remaining 13 passengers, including 3 children, lost their lives. Investigators examined the boat as well as underwater pictures and videos and determined that improper maintenance was the primary cause of the accident.
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Shortly before noon on Saturday, May 1, 1999, the amphibious excursion boat Miss Majestic entered Lake Hamilton near Hot Springs, Arkansas, on a regular excursion tour of the area. On board were 20 passengers and 1 operator. According to the operator, several minutes after entering the water, the vessel listed to port and then sank rapidly by the stern. The vessel sank below the surface of the water, taking the passengers and the operator with it. The vessel sank in 60 feet of water, and 13 of the 20 passengers, including 3 children, lost their lives.
According to testimony from the survivors, the Miss Majestic had been in the lake only 5 to 7 minutes when its stern became awash; within a minute thereafter, the vessel was swamped with water coming over the stern, and it sank. The Miss Majestic sank so rapidly that only seven passengers and the operator were able to escape from the vessel and swim to the surface, where they were rescued by pleasure boaters in the area.
The survivors time estimate of 5 to 7 minutes agrees with the Safety Boards estimates, which are based on the vessels average speed and the distance that it traveled between the entrance ramp and the location of the sinking. DUKWs, such as the Miss Majestic, normally trim by the stern when waterborne, resulting in an aft freeboard of as little as 8 to 12 inches, depending on the number, weight, and distribution of the passengers.
The Safety Board made calculations to simulate the Miss Majestic accident, in which the boot on the aft end of the aft driveshaft housing had completely slipped off the housing. A detached boot allows water to enter the hull through the annular space between the 3-inch-diameter driveshaft and the 4-7/8-inch-diameter housing.
The Safety Board estimated that the minimum rate of water inflow was about 170 gallons per minute (gpm), which was enough to eliminate the vessels freeboard at the stern and sink the vessel in about 7 minutes. To verify the accuracy of its estimates, the Safety Board contracted a recognized naval architectural firm to perform detailed calculations. The firms preliminary calculations confirmed that a vessel such as the Miss Majestic that was carrying 20 passengers would sink from uncontrolled flooding in as little as about 6 minutes.
As originally designed, a DUKW is equipped with a dewatering pump that is chain-driven from the propeller shaft and powered by the DUKWs propulsion engine. Operation of the pump, therefore, depends on the reliable operation of the vessels propulsion system, as well as the reliable operation of the pump itself. The Miss Majestics dewatering pump was found to be inoperable, despite witness reports that it had functioned only 2 days earlier. Reliance upon an active system, such as a dewatering pump, requires assured reliability.
However, even with meticulous maintenance and regular testing, reliability can never be guaranteed. Any shortcomings in maintenance, whether the result of inadequate training or experience, improper or ineffective procedures, failure to identify a problem, use of poor technique, or other causes, can render the active system useless.
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Eleven people drowned and one was injured today when the amphibious excursion boat on which they were passengers sank without warning in nearby Lake Hamilton.
The dead included three children, ages 2 to 5, said Sheriff Larry Selig of Garland County. The driver survived.
The 20 people aboard the open-air, World War II-vintage boat panicked and scrambled for life preservers as it took on water at midday and sank suddenly on Lake Hamilton near this popular tourist town, the Associated Press reported.
''I've been in law enforcement here for 20 years, and this is the most difficult thing I've had to deal with,'' Sheriff Selig said. ''It's just horrible.''
Sheriff Selig and lawyers for the company that owns the boat said it was several minutes into the aquatic leg of its journey when it began to take on water.
''The driver told us that all of a sudden the front started coming up, almost vertical,'' Sheriff Selig said. ''Thirty seconds later, the whole thing was underwater.''
None of the passengers were wearing life preservers, the Associated Press reported. The boat, known as a ''duck'' for its use on land and water, sank in one or two minutes as it cruised less than a mile offshore, said City Manager Kent Myers and witnesses.
''When people in the nearby condos saw what was happening, they rushed to their boats and went out to help,'' said Joe Sexson, director of emergency services for nearby Hot Springs National Park.
The craft, covered with a canopy, was required to carry life preservers, but passengers were not required to wear them, Mr. Myers said.
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TMBA created a series of animations based on the NTSB report of this incident
for the Tru TV series Extreme Evidence.
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