"If the NTSB feels it's for the safety of the passengers, then [the Coast Guard's and PVA's] reasons are a pretty lame excuse," said Sinn, who was a Coast Guard reservist for six years. "The NTSB said the adults [on Miss Majestic] didn't have time to put the preservers on the children when the boat started to sink. The Duck boats sink real fast."
The Coast Guard and PVA, which has about 600 members, also nixed the "no canopy" notion.
"Most of them [canopies] are there for the protection of the Duck boat," said Lauridsen, who spoke from Virginia Beach, Va. "They protect them [passengers] from rain and sun during the excursions."
The Coast Guard directive suggests that canopy supports are positioned in a way that would allow passengers to exit the vessel without obstruction.
Bob Mongeluzzi, one of the lawyers representing the Hungarian victims' families, is concerned that the NTSB recommendations weren't followed.
"Why are people not told to wear [life jackets] as soon as they go into the water?" Mongeluzzi asked. "And why can't a canopy get taken down like a simple convertible?
"If we could send someone to the moon 41 years ago, how could we not be able to design a canopy that could be simply, inexpensively and easily taken down and retracted?"
