BRANSON, Mo. (LEX 18) – The NTSB has released a preliminary report on the duck boat crash that killed 17 people, including a family of 9 with Kentucky connections.
Officials with NTSB are reviewing the case and say they have recovered footage from inside the boat.
Local area forecasts for the time of the accident included thunderstorm warnings and data indicated winds of over 70 mph were encountered by a nearby vessel. The Stretch Duck 7 was carrying 31 persons: 29 passengers and two crewmembers. The vessel sank in approximately 15 feet of water and came to rest on the lake floor at a depth of 70 feet.
The Stretch Duck 7 was equipped with a video recording system, which was recovered from the sunken vessel by the highway patrol dive team and sent to the NTSB laboratory. Investigators are attempting to access data on the system’s hard drive. They are also reviewing cell phone and surveillance video from the boat.
Nine members of the Coleman family were killed. Patriarch Horace Coleman was originally from Harlan County.
You can view the report here.
