New York boat capsized – : One person dead after tour boat accident during cave tour along the Erie Canal

A passenger thrown from a boat that flipped over with 29 people aboard during a tour of a dimly lit cavern system said he fought to breathe in the chilly water under the capsized craft.

The flat-bottomed boat carrying local hospitality workers capsized Monday during a tour of an historic underground water tunnel off the Erie Canal in the western New York city of Lockport, killing one person.

“By the time I realized what happened, the boat was on top of me and I couldn’t find any air pockets or anything. And I’m just trying to, like, breathe because I’m underwater,” survivor Daniel Morrissette told ABC‘s “Good Morning America” in an interview aired Tuesday.

The unidentified person who died also was trapped after the boat operated by Lockport Cave Tours capsized. Eleven people were brought to hospitals, mostly with minor injuries, according to officials.

Patricia Brandt, a spokeswoman for Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, said she did not know the nature of the injuries but believed some were treated for cold from being in the water. Other patients went to other hospitals, she said, but did not have details.

Jeremy Swiatowy, 42, watched as rescue workers breached the wall to the cave with a sledgehammer before shimmying through the hole to help rescue the remaining people inside.

Mr Swiatowy said local schoolchildren often take tours at the Lockport, and locals were concerned that children might have been on the boat that sent people into the chilling water.

“The water in the caves is super cold,” he said.

All 29 people on board the flat-bottom boat were thrown into water between 5 feet and 6 feet deep when the boat apparently became unbalanced and capsized toward the end of the roughly 300-foot tunnel.

Some passengers were able to get to safety on their own. Rescue crews using an inflatable boat rescued about 16 others, he said.

Authorities did not immediately release the name of the man who died. His wife was taken to a hospital, officials said.

“We have had eight of the passengers come into our ER,” said Patricia Brandt, spokeswoman for Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport. “None critical. They’re all stable and some have already been released.”

Elizabeth Morrissette and her husband Dan were among 29 people onboard the tour boat that capsized at Lockport Cave on Monday.

Recounting the terrifying moments just before the boat overturned in an interview with WKBW, Ms Morrissette said she suddenly “jumped into the water” when the boat tipped.

Law enforcement officials told The Niagara Gazette that a tour group was making its way through the cave when weight seemingly shifted on the boat, causing it to capsize. All of the passengers ended up in the water with the boat on top of them.

According to Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano, sixteen people were rescued by boat after the wall outside the cave was breached.

The rest of the passengers walked out of the cave themselves as the water in the caves is around two to six feet in depth.

Eight years before a man was killed during a capsizing accident at Lockport Cave, a similar incident also left boat passengers scared for their lives.

Sheri Scavone told The Buffalo News she and her then 15-year-old were onboard the historic tour boat when it overturned in September 2015.

“We were incensed. I was like, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ It was exactly the same thing,” Ms Scavone said about finding out about the capsizing on Monday.

“[My son] will not go into anything like a cave or a closed-in area.”

One man died and eleven others were left injured in Monday’s tragedy.

A passenger thrown from a boat that flipped over with 29 people aboard during a tour of a dimly lit cavern system said he fought to breathe in the chilly water under the capsized craft.

The flat-bottomed boat carrying local hospitality workers capsized Monday during a tour of a historic underground water tunnel off the Erie Canal in the western New York city of Lockport, killing one person.

“By the time I realized what happened, the boat was on top of me and I couldn’t find any air pockets or anything. And I’m just trying to, like, breathe because I’m underwater,” survivor Daniel Morrissette told ABC‘s “Good Morning America” in an interview aired Tuesday.

The unidentified person who died also was trapped after the boat operated by Lockport Cave Tours capsized. Eleven people were brought to hospitals, mostly with minor injuries, according to officials.

The tunnel was once the subject of an episode of the Syfy network show Ghost Hunters.

Photos and videos posted on the Lockport Cave website show small, flat-bottom boats slipping through a rough-hewn tunnel, which was blasted out in the 19th century to transport extra water from the Erie Canal to power nearby businesses.

Video footage from the scene outside the Lockport Cave office showed one person talking as she was loaded onto an ambulance. Others wrapped in white towels were being escorted to a bus as a steady rain fell.

All 29 people on board the flat-bottom boat were thrown into water between 5 feet and 6 feet deep when the boat apparently became unbalanced and capsized toward the end of the roughly 300-foot tunnel.

Some passengers were able to get to safety on their own. Rescue crews using an inflatable boat rescued about 16 others, he said.

Authorities did not immediately release the name of the man who died. His wife was taken to a hospital, officials said.

“We have had eight of the passengers come into our ER,” said Patricia Brandt, spokeswoman for Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport. “None critical. They’re all stable and some have already been released.”