One dead after boat capsizes during underground cave tour, officials say

One person died and more than a dozen others had to be rescued after a tour boat capsized Monday morning while carrying passengers through an underground cavern in western New York.

29 people were on board when the boat capsized at Lockport Cave in Lockport, NY, Lockport fire chief Luca Quagliano said at a news conference. Rescuers rescued 16 people from the water, Chief Quagliano said; the rest were able to get to safety under their own power.

In addition to the person who died, seven people were hospitalized in stable condition after being pulled from the water, an Eastern Niagara Health System spokeswoman said.

Police in Lockport, about 20 miles east of Niagara Falls, said a report of a capsizing boat came in around 11:30 a.m.

Governor Kathy Hochul, in a message posted on Twittersaid members of her staff were in close contact with local officials and emergency operations teams on the ground.

Near the Lockport Cave offices, firefighters, police and the New York State Police formed a human wall on Monday afternoon around people who appeared to have been rescued from the boat, many of them wrapped in white towels. As ambulances idled nearby, some people from a tour group re-boarded a bus, which eventually drove away.

Ashley Kandel from Victor, NY, was one of the spectators. She said she and her husband, Tarek, scheduled the tour of the cave for 2 p.m. She said she sensed something was wrong as they made their way to the cave late in the morning.

The couple encountered a large number of fire trucks and noticed streets in the area were closed off, Ms Kandel said. She called Lockport Caves to ask about the unusual traffic, but no one answered, she said.

“We would face our fear of being underground,” Ms Kandel said, describing some of the couple’s motivation for taking the tour.

Danny Higgins reporting contributed.