With news today that a London Duck Tours DUKW caught fire and sank in the River Thames, I thought I'd post a view from a DUKW that I took a couple of years back.
This is a view of what's now called the Elizabeth Tower at the Palace of Westminster. More commonly it's referred to as Big Ben at the Houses of parliament.
The DUKW that caught fire, judging from the imagery, wasn't too far from where I took this photo, only we were heading downstream on the oubound leg of the tour and the one that caught fire was heading upstream and close to the end of the river section of the tour.
Of course, if this had happened to my tour, I'd have been terrified, with my parents, children and wife all on the tour. While they have life vests on board, I would not have wanted to have to jump into the Thames, and I'd have lost my camera, phone, etc. My holiday would have been a write off. So I feel for the tourists that were caught up in this event today. Thankfully everyone was rescued but I can imagine the nightmares some of those folks will have for some time to come.
London Duck Tours have suspended river operations until the cause of the fire is known and any modifications required are made. Their fleet of nine DUKWs were rebuilt between 2002 and 2012 with new hulls, engines, computerized systems and steering equipment.
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