DUCKBOAT DOWN: Second Body Found

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[Photo by HARPO 42]

INQUIRER: A female’s body was recovered from the Delaware River this morning as a salvage crew prepared to raise a duck boat from the river bottom. It is not clear yet if the body – described as that of a young woman – is that of Dora Schwendtner, 16, a Hungarian tourist who disappeared when the duck boat was run over by a barge on Wednesday. A second Hungarian tourist Szablcs Prem, 20, also did not make it to shore after the Ride the Ducks boat went down and remains missing. A fisherman spotted the body about 4:45 a.m. off Pier 80 at the foot of Snyder Avenue, officials said. The crew of the Fire Department’s Marine Unit 1 recovered the remains just north of the Walt Whitman Bridge and took them to the Packer Marine rtducks.thumbnail.jpgTerminal. MORE

RELATED: Even though the amphibious vehicle known as “Duck 34” wallowed powerless in the Delaware River for about 15 minutes before its fatal sinking, no distress call was ever received by the Coast Guard, investigators said Thursday. The Wednesday afternoon accident – which sent 35 passengers and two crew members into the water, and apparently killed two passengers – has left investigators with a puzzle: Why did two vessels equipped with radios, required to keep a lookout, and crewed by licensed mariners, crash in clear weather on a sunny day? MORE

UPDATE: A floating crane pulled the the mangled wreck of a duck boat to the surface of the Delaware River this afternoon, two days after it was run over and sunk by a barge. The development came just hours after a body found in the river this morning was identified as that of a 16-year-old Hungarian girl who had been on the tour boat. Police in the meantime were searching waters near the salvage site after what appeared to be a body – possibly a second missing tourist – was briefly spotted near the barge carrying the crane. MORE

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