The National Transportation Safety Board, in a blistering report, says the U.S. Coast Guard’s failure to adopt its safety recommendations, dating back 20 years, likely led to a Missouri boating accident that killed 17 people in July 2018.
The fatalities were among 31 passengers aboard an amphibious passenger vehicle called the Stretch Duck 7, which sank in a rapidly developing high-wind storm on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo.
The Stretch Duck 7 was a modified World War II amphibious vehicle known as a “DUKW” or “duck boat.” The vehicle was originally designed as a military landing craft and then modified for civilian excursion tours.