Authorities have released the names of the 17 people killed when a tourist boat sank on a Branson, Missouri, lake.
More than half of those killed were members of the same Indiana family. According to the Stone County Sheriff's Office, five of the dead were from Missouri, two were from Arkansas and one was from Illinois.
The Ride the Ducks boat sank Thursday in Table Rock Lake in southwest Missouri after a strong storm.
The sheriff's department identified the Indiana family members as 45-year-old Angela Coleman, 1-year-old Arya Coleman, 69-year-old Belinda Coleman, 76-year-old Ervin Coleman, 7-year-old Evan Coleman, 40-year-old Glenn Coleman, 70-year-old Horace Coleman, 2-year-old Maxwell Coleman, and 9-year-old Reece Coleman.
The people from Missouri were identified as 69-year-old William Asher, 68-year-old Rosemarie Hamann, 63-year-old Janice Bright, 65-year-old William Bright, and 73-year-old Bob Williams.
Also killed were 64-year-old Leslie Dennison of Illinois and 15-year-old Lance Smith and 53-year-old Steve Smith from Arkansas.
Saturday afternoon, the National Transportation Safety Board says it might take as long as a year to finish a report on the cause of the accident.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that NTSB officials said they expect to be on the scene for the next week to 10 days.
The website for the tour company that owned the boat says the business will remain closed during the investigation.
The site, for Ride the Ducks Branson, has been taken down except for a page saying the business will remain closed to support the investigation and allow time for families and the Branson community to grieve. The page says the company's leaders are heartbroken.
Meantime, a man who owns a private inspection service says he told a company operating the duck boats that two dozen of them had significant design flaws.
Steve Paul said Saturday that he inspected two dozen duck boats for Ripley Entertainment in August 2017. He said he doesn't know whether the boats remained in Branson.
Paul said the boats had systems venting motor exhaust at the front below the water line. He said in rough conditions, water could get into the motor and shut it off.
Paul said pumps used to take water out of the hull would then shut off.
A Ripley spokeswoman did not immediately return telephone and email messages seeking comment.
The area that the duck boat was travelling in had been under a severe thunderstorm watch for hours and a severe thunderstorm warning for more than 30 minutes before the boat sank.