Body of Philadelphia Duck Boat Crash Victim Recovered from Delaware River; Second Body Spotted

Channel Six Action News reported this morning that the body of 16-year-old Dora Schwendtner, one of two missing passengers from Wednesday's Duck Boat crash in Philadelphia, was discovered by a fishing boat near the Walt Whitman Bridge and recovered by the Philadelphia Fire Department at 4:45 a.m. Friday.

Television cameras being used by salvage workers attempting to raise the submerged boat later in the morning spotted a second body near the crash site. The body was floating face-down and surfaced briefly but submerged again. While the second body has not yet been positively recovered or identified, it is strongly suspected to be that of 20-year-old Szabolcs Prem.

Schwendtner and Prem were part of an Hungarian tour group being hosted by the Marshallton United Methodist Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania. According to the pastor, 22 of the 37 people on the Duck Boat were from his church, 15 of them from Hungary.

While it was originally reported that the Duck Boat captain sent out a distress call, it is now being reported that, in fact, no distress call was sent out to the Coast Guard. The boat captain called the duck boat company instead to have another duck boat tow them in and sat for 10 or 15 minutes before being hit by a barge being towed to a recycling site by tugboat. The Coast Guard did acknowledge receiving a garbled distress call around the time of the accident but didn't know where it came from, and a source reported the call "sounded like a lot of chaos, a lot of noise and people screaming like someone had opened a microphone." No one was saying "mayday" or "help," however.

Chris Herschend, president of "Ride the Ducks" which is based in Atlanta, arrived in Philadelphia on Thursday, telling reporters that "I can tell you that it's my understanding that our captain followed all of his training, all of the Coast Guard training, all of the regulations required of a captain in that situation."

Herschend is cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigation into the accident. All "Ride the Ducks" operations are suspended indefinitely. Herschend said, "We'll resume operations when we're confident we've taken every step we can to prevent it from ever happening again."

The investigation into the crash could take more than a year to complete, according to the NTSB. Federal investigators will review radio calls and inspection records, conduct distance tests, and examine photographs and videos of the crash.

Previous Articles: Philadelphia Duck Boat Hit by Barge; Sunken Duck Boat Located in Delaware, Two Still Missing; Updates: Duck Boat Tour Passengers Describe Crash and Sinking in Delaware River; Second Body and Duck Boat Pulled from Delaware River; Duck Boat Crash - NTSB Interviews Reveal Calls for Help and Alarm Attempts Failed; Sources: ABCLoal.go.com; Philly.com