Tour Boat Capsizes Inside New York State Cave

Officials say a tour boat capsized inside a cave late Monday morning, sending 11 people to the hospital with minor injuries. Sadly though, one passenger died after authorities say they believe he somehow became trapped under the boat. The accident is under investigation.

The capsize happened inside the Lockport Cave, where water temperatures were said to have been around 60 degrees. according to PIX11.

Man Dies After Boat Capsizes in Lockport

PIX11 says that a Destination Niagara USA tour boat tipped over after it became unbalanced and capsized around 11:20 AM Monday. The Lockport Fire Chief said at a news conference that "the boat did a 180-degree turn, so the bottom of the boat was upright in the water,"

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Officials say there were 28 adults and an employee aboard the boat when it capsized. PIX11 says that around 16 people were rescued by first responders who worked around an hour , while a number of others were able to walk out of the water.

How Many Caves Are in New York? 

According to Show Caves' data collected back in 2008, New York state has approximately 767 caves, though that could vary by a wide margin. The website says that cave registries or cadastres are maintained on grotto level in the U.S.

They also go on to say that the their numbers are not collected officially, therefore there are no real reliable numbers. This is a rather old count of caves listed in the cave archives of the NSS.