Tour boat flips in cave, sending 29 people into water and killing 1, NY officials say
A man died and 11 people went to local hospitals after a flat-bottom tour boat flipped over inside a cave in upstate New York, officials said.
More than two dozen people were flung into 5 to 6 feet of frigid water inside the Lockport cave along the Erie Canal at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday, June 12, USA Today reported.
First responders rescued 16 passengers via two routes: with an inflatable rescue boat and by punching a hole into the tunnel from the outside with sledge hammers and crow bars, the Lockport Fire Department said in a news release. A dozen people were tall enough to wade through about 300 feet of water back to a docking area inside the tunnel.
One passenger was trapped underneath the boat and died, officials said.
Some passengers were on top of the overturned boat when rescue crews arrived, CNN reported.
Crews took 11 people to local hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, including mild hypothermia, a possible head injury and a broken arm, Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano told the outlet.
All of the passengers worked in hospitality in the Niagara County area, KXAN reported.
The historic boat tours take passengers on an underground boat ride through tunnels “illuminated only by small, sporadically placed electric lights,” the tour website says.
The tunnels were “blasted out in the 19th century to transport canal water as an industrial power source, KXAN reported.
Lockport Cave is about 20 miles northeast of Niagara Falls.
This story was originally published June 12, 2023 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Tour boat flips in cave, sending 29 people into water and killing 1, NY officials say."
