Boat carrying tourists capsizes in N.Y., 21 dead

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- A boat carrying tourists on a senior citizens' cruise overturned Sunday on a lake in upstate New York, killing at least 21 people and sending more than two dozen others to a hospital.\nAuthorities were investigating whether a large passing tour boat created a wake that caused the accident, Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said.\nThe 40-foot, glass-enclosed Ethan Allen capsized about 3 p.m. on Lake George about 50 miles north of Albany in the Adirondack Mountains.\nThe accident apparently happened so fast that none of the passengers were able to put on a life jacket, Cleveland said.\nPatrol boats that reached the scene within minutes found other boaters already pulling people from the water. All passengers had been accounted for within two hours.\nTwenty-seven people were taken to a hospital in nearby Glens Falls. All of the injured were cold and wet, some with broken ribs and some complaining of shortness of breath. Five people were to be admitted, hospital spokesman Jason White said.\nThe 21 bodies were laid out along the shore, and the scene was blocked off by police with tarps. The Ethan Allen lay at the bottom of the lake in 70 feet of water.\nAt the time of the accident, the weather was clear and in the 70s. The water temperature was 68 degrees.\n"This was as calm as it gets," said Jerry Thornell, a former Lake George Park Commission patrol officer and a lake enforcement officer for the county sheriff's department.\nRepresentatives of Shoreline Cruises, which operates the boat, could not immediately be reached for comment.\nThe boat's owner, Jim Quirk, whose family has operated Shoreline Cruises for decades, told the Glens Falls Post-Star: "It is a tragedy and it's very unfortunate."\nThe boat was carrying a tour group from Canada, Cleveland said. A language barrier was slowing the process of notifying victims' families.\n"Nothing of this magnitude has ever happened," state police Superintendent Wayne Bennett said. "It's unprecedented."\nAs dusk fell, several police boats were on the water, and at least half a dozen divers were in a small cove on the west side of the lake.\nCleveland said the captain, who was well known and well liked by law enforcement officials, survived. He was the only crew member aboard.