Archive coverage: Water taxi accident
Full coverage of the capsizing of a Seaport Taxi off Fort McHenry.
New safety rules urged in Lady D report
The Coast Guard's final report on the 2004 Baltimore Harbor water taxi accident that left five dead and one child with brain damage urges pontoon boat inspections and new stability standards based on heavier passengers. Full story...
U.S. panel, Coast Guard still split on water taxi tragedy's lessons
Five years after the water taxi Lady D flipped over in Baltimore Harbor, killing five passengers, two federal agencies remain divided over the cause of the tragedy and the lessons to be learned from it. Full story...
Coast Guard lauded on craft-weight rule
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board praised the Coast Guard yesterday for its adoption of higher standards for average passenger weight in calculating passenger vessel capacity - a move the board had recommended in the aftermath of the fatal capsizing of a water taxi in Baltimore harbor in 2004. Full story...
New rules mean fewer passengers
More than two years after five people died when an overloaded water taxi sank in Baltimore's harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard urged operators of small passenger vessels yesterday to adjust for the greater heftiness of the average American. Full story...
Coast Guard is faulted in Lady D sinking
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded yesterday that a cascading series of errors by the Coast Guard permitted the water taxi Lady D to carry too much weight to withstand wind and waves when it capsized in Baltimore Harbor in March 2004. Full story...
Lady D's survivors rely on faith, work
Two years and a day after the water taxi Lady D flipped over in the frigid waters of Baltimore Harbor, the National Transportation Safety Board will meet in Washington on Tuesday to provide some long-awaited answers about what happened and why. Full story...
Water taxi lawsuit planned
Two insurance firms representing the company whose water taxi overturned in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in 2004, killing five people, said they plan to sue the U.S. Coast Guard today, alleging that the maritime service certified the vessel for too many passengers. Full story...
Riders on capsized water taxi saw lightning before cast-off
In the moments before the water taxi Lady D left the Fort McHenry dock on its fatal last voyage in March 2004, two of its passengers saw lightning in the sky, according to their statements to federal investigators. Full story...
Wind, waves doomed water taxi
The water taxi that overturned in Baltimore's Inner Harbor on March 6, 2004 - killing five passengers - was too unstable and heavy to withstand a hit by what its captain called a "spiral of wind" and a "wall of water," federal investigators said in a report released yesterday. Full story...
Weather service reviews water taxi accident
Weather forecasters were relying on limited radar data on the day of a fatal water taxi accident last year in Baltimore harbor, undermining their ability to issue timely, lifesaving warnings of an approaching storm, the National Weather Service found in an internal review set for release today. Full story...
24 sue over Seaport Taxi's capsizing
As state officials revoked the license of the balloon ride that stranded 16 passengers for nearly two hours over Baltimore Saturday, the latest lawsuits flowed in from the Inner Harbor accident last winter that claimed five lives when a water taxi capsized. Full story...
3 survivors sue owner of water taxi
Three survivors of the fatal Seaport Taxi tragedy in March filed a $17 million lawsuit yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court, alleging that the owner and operator of the Lady D were "negligent and careless" by ordering the vessel into the choppy waters of the city harbor during an impending storm. Full story...
Gathering of 'true family'
For 37 years, Thomas Pierce gave his wife a rose on the 13th day of each month - a monthly thanks for the day they married, Aug. 13, 1966. Full story...
Water taxi victim, 8, released from hospital
Sarah Bentrem, the 8-year-old Virginia girl who nearly died in the March 6 Seaport Taxi accident that killed five other passengers, has been released from the hospital in Baltimore. Full story...
Political dust-up on harbor tragedy
Countless heroes. Two squabbling politicians. And one half-empty reception room. Full story...
Reservists earn medals for rescue
The Naval Reserve members who rescued passengers from the harbor water shuttle that capsized near Fort McHenry two weeks ago will be awarded medals for their quick-thinking heroics. Full story...
Seaport Taxi back on water - with limits
Seaport Taxi, which halted its water shuttle service after a capsizing March 6 that killed five people, resumed limited routes around Baltimore's Inner Harbor yesterday. Full story...
Deep commitment
Water is ordinarily a firefighter's friend. Full story...
Diver recovers final victim in capsizing of the 'Lady D'
Diver Joe Yingling descended to the Patapsco River's murky bottom yesterday fully aware that he would find the last of three bodies missing since a Seaport Taxi capsized 10 days ago in high winds off Fort McHenry. Full story...
Divers recover bodies of 2 victims
Divers working in bitter winds and frigid water yesterday recovered the bodies of two of the three tourists lost nine days ago when the Seaport Taxi Lady D capsized in a sudden gale off Fort McHenry. Full story...
Wind, waves, twists of fate bring death
Everyone wanted to get on the boat. Full story...
Harbor taxi's canopy found
More private companies and the U.S. Navy assisted the Baltimore Fire Department yesterday in its seventh day of searching for three missing passengers of the capsized Seaport Taxi. Full story...
'We have some higher hopes' for today
Fred and Lois Rao sat quietly in the warm afternoon sun yesterday along Fort McHenry's shore and tried not to cry as they spoke of Saturday's capsized Seaport Taxi. Full story...
Water accident leaves troubles for nonprofit
His normally cheerful expression drawn and sober, his voice grave, Living Classrooms Foundation President James Piper Bond has been the public face of an organization in crisis since a Seaport Taxi it operated capsized in a sudden storm Saturday. Full story...
Fire chief becomes city's face
Saturday afternoon started out quietly at home for Baltimore Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr., who was shaving and getting ready for a family birthday party. Then, he turned on his fire radio just to "see how the guys were doing." Full story...
Divers enlist high-tech help in water taxi recovery mission
Divers blindly scouring the bottom of the channel off Fort McHenry yesterday discovered pieces of the Seaport Taxi that capsized Saturday, injecting a glimmer of hope into a dismal search for three bodies that enters its fifth day this morning with more high-tech help. Full story...
34-year-old N.J. university employee 'always brought energy' to room
When employees of a New Jersey university created a group called the "fun committee," Lisa Pierce was one of the first to join. Much to the delight of her colleagues, she supplied the committee with snacks, planned parties and made friends with everyone who joined. Full story...
Inquiry looks at boat design
Federal investigators looking into Saturday's fatal capsizing of a water taxi on Baltimore's Inner Harbor are examining the design of the two-hulled Lady D and may study the safety record of similar pontoon boats nationally. Full story...
Amid search for the missing, haunting memory for survivor
Despite intense search efforts yesterday, three passengers from the capsized Seaport Taxi remained missing in the frigid waters off Fort McHenry as some survivors recounted more tales of horror and heroism from Saturday's harbor tragedy. Full story...
She talked of wedding; he bought a diamond
It was the weekend he planned to ask her to marry him. Full story...
A 'phenomenal nurse' who was 'devoted to kids'
The call came late last week. Full story...
Reservists' heroism saved lives
Eric Jahnsen and his fiancee boarded the Lady D Seaport Taxi late Saturday afternoon with mild skies overhead and Fells Point a short ride away. Five minutes later, they and 23 others on the water taxi were fighting for their lives in dark, frigid water off Fort McHenry. Full story...
Searching for answers in harbor disaster
As rescue workers continued to search yesterday for three missing passengers of the Seaport Taxi overturned by a vicious storm Saturday, federal investigators questioned the captain, first mate and other survivors, trying to learn more about the fatal capsizing in Baltimore harbor. Full story...
Taxis keep cruising harbor
While the Seaport Taxi sat idle as the investigation into a deadly accident involving one of its boats continued, The Water Taxi - the other ticket through the Inner Harbor - drew a steady and unshaken group of passengers yesterday. Full story...
Captain is termed 'more than capable'
The captain of the Seaport Taxi that capsized Saturday in Baltimore harbor is a Vietnam veteran well-regarded in his Baltimore County riverside community as an avid waterman and sensible, skilled boater, those who know him say. Full story...
Ill-equipped Weather Service too late with alert
When the National Weather Service issued a "special marine warning" at 4:05 p.m. Saturday urging boats to seek shelter, the alert came too late for a Baltimore harbor water taxi. A fierce gust had capsized it about 5 minutes earlier, dumping its 25 passengers into frigid water off Fort McHenry. Full story...
Board to examine use of life jackets
Investigators are "very interested" in whether the captain of the water taxi that capsized in Baltimore's harbor Saturday told passengers to put on life jackets in the moments after he was warned that winds were quickly becoming too dangerous, authorities said last night. Full story...
'It just rolled over'
A fierce gust of wind flipped over a crowded Seaport Taxi off Fort McHenry yesterday, leaving one dead and three presumed drowned as federal safety officials began an investigation into Baltimore's first water taxi fatalities since the boats began cruising the harbor more than two decades ago. Full story...
Rescuers hailed for keeping toll down
As the wind whipped out of the Inner Harbor toward Fort McHenry late yesterday afternoon, Petty Officer Edward Mendez looked from the U.S. Naval Reserve Training Center on Fort Avenue and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Full story...
Cold water most likely was factor in deaths
Hypothermia, which could have been a factor in the deaths in the Patapsco River yesterday, occurs when the core body temperature falls below the normal 98.6 degrees and impairs muscular and brain functions. Full story...
Patapsco, Baltimore's harbor no stranger to calamities
Baltimore's sprawling harbor and miles of Patapsco River shoreline have been the scene of emergencies, near escapes and outright tragedy. Full story...
History of Seaport Taxi
Seaport Taxi became a component of the Living Classrooms Foundation four years ago when the nonprofit organization took over operation of the former Harbor Shuttle, which had been a for-profit business. Full story...
Complete list of those aboard water taxi
The following is a complete list of those on board a Seaport Taxi, operated by the Living Classrooms Foundation, that capsized March 6 in Baltimore's harbor. Full story...
