As anniversary of Lockport Cave boat capsize approaches, family remembers deceased victim

It was early afternoon of June 12, 2023, when Mansi Shah received a frantic phone call from her father-in-law about her father, Harshad.

“He said, ‘We can’t find him.’ I was like, “Okay, what do you mean you can’t find it?” “, she recalled recently. “‘The boat is overturned and we can’t find it.’ And then the phone disconnected.

Harshad Shah, who owned and operated two motels in Niagara Falls, was part of a group that had gone that morning on an underground boat ride through Lockport Cave. His wife and Mansi Shah’s husband’s parents joined him on the tour.

Twenty-nine people were on board the boat when, without warning, it overturned, throwing the passengers into the dark, dirty waters of the cave channel.

Twenty-eight survived, but Harshad Shah drowned.

“I would say he was the glue of our family,” his son, Dharan Shah, told the Buffalo News on Sunday, in the family’s first interview.

Wednesday marks one year since the fatal capsize, which attracted media attention and sparked questions about which government agencies should have regulated boat rides.

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