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LAKE GEORGE---As the town and village of Lake George and hundreds of rescuers, survivors and others prepare to observe the anniversary of the capsizing of the Ethan Allen tour boat on Lake George last Oct. 2, the owner of the boat company which performed modifications to the boat says the public needs to have an accurate understanding of the facts that have been established by the investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board.
After Scarano Boat Building of Albany was sued by families of the victims of the Ethan Allen boating tragedy last fall when 20 senior citizens from Michigan and Ohio died while on a fall foliage tour of the Lake George shoreline, Scarano filed a claim against the U.S. Coast Guard.
www.scaranoboat.com
Scarano had performed modifications to the 40-foot tour boot including changing the canopy and installing plexiglass windows around the boat but Scarano says they weren't liable for the capsizing of the tour boat which took the lives of 20 senior citizens of the 47 passengers on board. They claimed that the Coast Guard acted improperly by certifying the boat's stability to carry 50 passengers some 40 years ago in 1966.
"As we prepare to observe the anniversary of the unfortunate tragedy of the Ethan Allen, there remains a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding of the facts that have been established by the investigation into the cause of the Ethan Allen's sinking", John Scarano says.
He points to factual references made in the NTSB accident report released to the public on July 26 which he says exonerates Scarano from liability in the accident.
http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2006/MAR0603.pdf
"Upon its initial construction and while in the possession of prior owners in the 1960s, the Ethan Allen was certified by federal regulatory agencies to carry 48 passengers", Scarano says. "Some time after the vessel was initially built and sold, a pipe and canvas canopy was added to the vessel while it was still in Connecticut waters. Unfortunately, the addition of this canopy reduced the vessel's stability from 48 to 0 passengers. Despite the installation of a canopy, the vessel continued to be certified by both federal and state agencies as it operated without incident for an additional 10 years in Connecticut and an ensuing 17 years in New York until its capsize".
In 1989, Scarano Boat Building replaced the pipe and canvas canopy with a wood frame canopy. Scarano says the canopy installed by Scarano improved the stability of the Ethan Allen by a factor of 14 passengers (from 0 to 14). "When approached by the owners of the Ethan Allen, Scarano Boat Building was presented with a boat that had a canopy and a USCG/NYS certification for stability", Scarano says.
From 1989 until it capsized, the Ethan Allen continued to be certified on an annual basis to carry passengers and operated without incident, he notes. "Only with hindsight, has it become apparent that the boat should not have been certified after the initial canopy installation was made in Connecticut, nor should the certifications by state and federal agencies continued thereafter", Scarano says.
After it was sued by Scarano, the Coast Guard denied that it inspected, certified or regulated the Ethan Allen which is owned by Shoreline Cruises Inc. of Lake George.
Federal attorneys representing the Coast Guard acknowledged that the agency does boat stability testing and issues stability letters and inspection certificates for some vessels but they say the Ethan Allen wasn't among those vessels.
In a brief filed with the U.S. District Court, legal counsel argued that "the damages and losses alleged…were caused in whole or in part, by the negligence, fault and lack of due care of cross-defendants.
In July, the National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report of its investigation, concluding that the probable cause of the accident was the tour boat's insufficient stability, a sharp turn undertaken by the captain and the resulting involuntary shift of passengers to the port side of the vessel.
The NTSB said the stability of the 40-foot tour boat was insufficient because it was carrying four times the alleged passenger weight it should have been. The boat carried 48 persons where post-accident stability calculations demonstrated that it should have been permitted to carry only 14 persons. Contributing to the cause of the accident was the failure to reassess the vessel's stability after it had been modified because there was no clear requirement to do so, NTSB officials said.
In February, the Warren County Sheriff's Department issued a three volume, 530-page "investigation report", determining that no criminal charges would be filed against boat captain Richard Paris, 74, a retired state trooper and friend of Sheriff Larry Cleveland, or Shoreline Cruises, the boat's owner.
Scarano had claimed that the Ethan Allen was known as the Double Dolphin when it was certified by the Coast Guard as being stable and having a maximum capacity of 50 persons. Scarano says when the boat's owner, Shoreline Cruises Inc. of Lake George, hired them to perform the modifications to the boat, the company was given those stability certifications.
Shoreline reportedly bought the boat in 1977 in Groton, Conn., and placed it in service on Lake George. The modifications were performed to the boat by Scarano after the Coast Guard's certification.
Shoreline Cruises, boat captain Richard Paris, Shoreline Tours Inc. of Canada, the company that arranged the boating tour and the Lake George Steamboat Company have been named as defendants in wrongful death cases filed in federal court.
According to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Coast Guard did inspect the Ethan Allen under the name of the Double Dolphin before it was placed on Lake George and the vessel did hold a valid certificate of inspection at that time.
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 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. 9-29-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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