1 dead, several rescued after tour boat capsizes in underground NY cave

A tour boat carrying 36 passengers capsized in western New York Monday.  LOCKPORT, N,Y. - One person was killed and multiple people were sent to local hospitals after a boat capsized Monday during a tour of an underground cavern system built to carry water from the Erie Canal beneath the western New York city of Lockport, officials said.Police and fire crews were called to the Lockport Cave Tours, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Niagara Falls, at about 11:30 a.m.

The tours take visitors on an underground boat ride illuminated only by small lights."The boat did a 180-degree turn, so the bottom of the boat was upright in the water," Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano said at a news conference. "A number of victims were on top of that boat initially when rescuers got to them."A boat carrying 36 people capsized Monday during a tour of an underground cavern system built to carry water from the Erie Canal beneath the western New York city of Lockport, police said.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.