Emergency response to man falling off party boat in Lake Ontario unco-ordinated: TSB

TORONTO — The Transportation Safety Board says emergency response efforts after a man fell off a party boat in Lake Ontario last year weren’t co-ordinated.

Search efforts failed to locate 34-year-old Keith White after he fell from the Northern Spirit in June last year and drowned. His body was recovered off the Toronto shore 18 days later.

READ MORE: Family of London, Ont. man who fell off party boat into Lake Ontario suing for $1M

In its final report on the incident, the safety board says the passenger’s unsafe behaviour and intoxication led to him falling overboard.

But it also notes the crew didn’t realize White had been drinking when they allowed him on board and also continued to serve him alcohol.

“It has been tremendously difficult for our family to relive the events contributing to Keith’s clearly unnecessary death. We miss him every day, and his larger than life personality continues to leave a hole in our hearts and family,” said sister Tiffany White.

“The Transport Safety Board (TSB) report has directed a light on the crew’s ‘ad hoc,’ ‘uncoordinated’ and clearly insufficient rescue response. In particular, our family was devastated to learn that no emergency alarm was sounded (despite being the ship’s procedure), because they did not want to ‘alarm the passengers.'”

READ MORE: Body found in Humber Bay is missing man Keith White, who fell off party boat

The report further says the crew’s response to the emergency wasn’t co-ordinated because the signal to initiate the man-overboard procedure was not sounded.

It adds the crew had never performed any man-overboard drills.

“It was 46 minutes until the safety boat on board the Northern Spirit was deployed to assist in the rescue of Keith,” Tiffany White said.

“Our family is reeling as, for us, the TSB investigation reinforces that this incident was very preventable. If a rescue could not be conducted in broad daylight, in ideal marine conditions, with a passenger trained as a lifeguard – this says to us they were not capable of saving any passenger, under any circumstance.”

With files from Global News