Lockport, N.Y. (WBEN) - Numerous questions remain unanswered after one man was killed Monday morning in Lockport after a group of 28 tourists were tossed from a capsized Lockport Cave tour boat.
Lockport Police and Fire Departments arrived first to the chaotic scene after something went horribly wrong during one of the operation's routine tours.
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"Somehow, at the end of the cave, the boat became unbalanced and capsized. All 28 or 29 people were thrown into the water," said Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano.
"Roughly 16 people were rescued by Fire and EMS personnel. We have an inflatable boat that we can launch virtually anywhere through the use of compressed air. We put rescuers on that boat to go down that 300 feet corridor and we were able to bring back three or four people at a time. Altogether, about 16 were rescued via boat. Everybody else was able to walk that corridor back to the original launch spot."
In addition, emergency response teams were able to breach a hole in the side of the cave.
"We also had a joint location where we breached the wall from the outside of the cave. On the canal side, there is an area that underwent some construction years back. Portions of the wall are more of a facade than a structural bearing wall. So we were able to breach that with heavy equipment and rescue some people that way," added Chief Quagliano.
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Police investigations and interviews of the passengers are currently in progress, looking to specifically address how the boat itself capsized.
"We have one individual whose passed, we have a whole lot of questions that need to be answered. We have the District Attorney's office involved as well. Whether or not that leads to charges in the future, I do not know, but as of right now, we're treating it as a crime scene," said Lockport Police Chief Steven Abbott.
During the Monday press conference, we were made aware that the tours do not require you to wear life jackets on the boat and nobody was wearing a life jacket at the time of the incident. In addition, no children were on board. All the passengers on the boat, excluding the boat staff operator, were hospitality employees from Niagara County.
"This was a tour that our organization, Destination Niagara USA hosted," said spokeswoman Andrea Czopp. "We are the tourism promotion agency for Niagara County. Every year, we host familiarization tours across Niagara County, for free, for all hospitality employees of Niagara County. So those individuals signed up to be a part of this today was the Lockport Day. So these are all hospitality employees across Niagara County, between our office staff as well as others."
Chief Abbott noted that this investigation is a joint venture with Niagara County Sheriff's and New York State Police. In addition, OSHA is doing an investigation and the NTSB has been notified.
Lockport Mayor Michelle Roman also added that the tour won't be in operation until the investigation is complete
"It's been an attraction since the 70s without incident, they are going to do a full and thorough investigation. If it is unsafe, then it will not be running but like I said, that's only one part of their facility. If they stopped doing that little section, they can still do their tour of the locks and some other things. They also do the Niagara Zipper which is out going over the canal with a zipline. Until everything is fully investigated, the health and safety of the staff and the visitors are always paramount to everybody here, so until that can be confirmed, through OSHA and other agencies, then that part of the operation will not be operating. I'm not sure how long that will take before they can start doing partial tours and stuff that that will have to be determined in the next day or so."