Duck Boat tragedy

I took a ride on one many years ago, vowed to never get on one again.

They are clumsy and slow on the road, the driver really had to work to get around on the street, in the water it was even worse. I'm on the water very often, lived on the water most of my life, so being out on odd boats is nothing new, but even on a calm small lake I wasn't comfortable in that thing, you can feel the tremendous weight and the lack of freeboard is scary. It felt like if a wave came over the side it would head straight to the bottom immediately.

 

There was an incident in the Northern Territory in Australia many years ago, where two army Ducks were racing home, and had to cross an estuary.

The one behind failed to close all the openings prior to getting into the water, and sunk.

This one is obviously taking on water, so its going to be something like the other comments, a leaking or old seal that only got tested in rough water a few times a year.

 

carlin used an amphibious jeep towing a floating fuel tank behind not a duck
adventurer or lunatic ?

 

I'd say he was half-mad, but I'm not at all sure about the half part ! And more incredibly, his wife went with him ! Barely believable that he would find a woman so inclined.

 

Love knows no bounds. My wife would have had me hauled off to the mental ward.feed

There was an article on the AP news that 40 people have died in Duck Boats since 1999.
Duck boats linked to more than 40 deaths since 1999 https://apnews.com/97b6da0d8d814fbaad1516a3dacf25ef

 

That's not what the article says at all.

 

Half-Safe amphibious jeep segment on Can We Help ABC TV

HALF-SAFE - Across the Atlantic by Jeep, by Ben Carlin | Amazon

Once a fool: From Japan to Alaska by amphibious jeep, by Boye De Mente (Ben Carlin's shipmate) | Amazon

 

I wonder where the exit(s?) might be on the boat. If it was forward, that would have been about the worst place possible.
The things are used all over the world so total deaths could be more, as we likely wouldn't hear anything about them from other places.

 

On most of them the main passenger door is at the rear/stern. The ones I have been on, either didn't have windows or they were the kind that could slide down or be kicked out easily. What often happens and looks a lot like what happened here is "cognitive bias". People, even in the face of an obvious dangerous situation, fail to react or react inappropriately because "they can't believe this is happening". So they all apparently calmly sat there until they started to go under and it was too late. Happens all the time on airliners.

Lots of people get killed in "safe" modern vehicles and equipment too.

 

Hard to believe that old jalopies based on the WW2 Studebaker truck, are deemed suitable to be used for paying passengers, the later LARC was a far better conveyance.

 

What ? People just sit there ? What other option is there ?

 

No on the ground when there is an emergency evacuation, like a fire etc. Its documented that people will try to collect their carry-on or calmly wait in the isle while the plane fills with smoke and they die.

 

That is surprising, you'd think there would be an indecorous stampede to the exits.

 

They do that too sometimes. People are strange creatures.

 

People are the most dangerous cargo a Captain can carry.