Originally Posted - June 28, 2006

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LAKE GEORGE---As part of its continuing investigation into the capsizing of the Ethan Allen in Lake George last fall, the National Transportation Safety Board will open a public docket and release a series of factual reports on Friday at 11 am.

The information being released is factual in nature and does not provide analysis. It will include investigative group factual reports; interviews, including those from the operator, passengers and witnesses; and other documents from the investigation. Additional material will be added to the docket as it becomes available. Analysis of the accident, along with conclusions and a determination of probable cause, will come at a later date when the final report on the investigation is completed.

In April, Mark Rosenker, acting NTSB chairman said that he expects that investigators probing the fatal boating accident on Lake George last October will conclude that the causes of the tragedy were modifications made to the vessel affecting the stability and the weight on board at the time the vessel capsized.

Rosenker, who led the Ethan Allen investigation last fall, has said it appears the same factors that were found to the cause of a March 2004 capsizing of the Lady D water taxi in Baltimore Harbor were involved with the Ethan Allen accident.

The 38-foot glass enclosed tour boat Ethan Allen capsized and sank in 70 feet of water on Oct. 2, killing 20 of the 47 passengers on board who were on an hour-long fall foliage tour along the Lake George shoreline.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed as a result of the accident with the boat's owner, Shoreline Cruises Inc. of Lake George and boat captain Richard Paris claiming that the accident was an "act of God" which could not have been prevented.

The small passenger pontoon-style vessel, Lady D, capsized March 6, 2004 as the vessel, carrying 23 passengers and two crewmembers, capsized after encountering strong winds and waves in Baltimore's Northwest Harbor.

In a report released last month, the NTSB determined that insufficient intact stability and overloading caused that accident which claimed the lives of five passengers. Four passengers suffered serious injuries.

The NTSB said lack of stability was the result of overloading allowed by a U.S. Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection that was based on an inappropriate stability test done on a different pontoon vessel to which the Lady D was erroneously granted sister status. The board also noted that the Coast Guard's regulatory stability test standards used an out-of- date average passenger weight standard that contributed to the overloading condition.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/030706LadyD.html

Civil actions filed in the case claim that the Ethan Allen was improperly designed and operated, overcrowded, unstable and understaffed.

Shoreline was cited for failing to provide the proper number of crew members. State regulations require two crew members for commercial vessels carrying 21 to 48 passengers. Paris was the only one on board.

Witnesses and Paris have said that a wake caused by the Mohican may have contributed to the capsizing of the Ethan Allen.

Paris told the Warren County Sheriff's Department that a wake from the Mohican caused him to make a sharp right turn before the boat capsized but the pilot of the Mohican, George LaPointe, has given a statement that the Mohican wasn't in the vicinity of the Ethan Allen at the time of the accident. 6-28-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette