"Ethan Allen" - NTSB Capsizing Synopsis

[GordMay]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a synopsis* on July 25 of its investigation of the capsizing of the New York State-certified passenger vessel Ethan Allen at Lake George on October 2, 2005. The vessel was carrying 47 passengers and an operator. Three passengers were seriously injured; six received minor injuries; and 20 passengers died in the incident.
The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the capsizing was insufficient stability, resulting in part from undue reliance on the manufacturer’s capacity plate data and failure to assess the vessel’s characteristics following modifications.

<quote>
”... The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the capsizing of the Ethan Allen was the vessel’s insufficient stability to resist the combined forces of a passing wave or waves, a sharp turn, and the resulting involuntary shift of passengers to the port side of the vessel. The vessel’s stability was insufficient because it carried 48 persons where postaccident stability calculations demonstrated that it should have been permitted to carry only 14 passengers. 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 ...”
<end quote>

* Goto: http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2006/MAR0603.htm

[markpj23]

These events are sad.. when hindsight reveals the obvious logic flaw that modifying a boat should also require recalculation of her stability characteristics.

Equivalent to the commuter plan crash a couple years back where after the fact they determined that using an average passenger weight value of 140 pounds did not reflect the realities of what people actually weigh nowadays.

Change is good - very sad that we need tragedy to trigger it...