After a tour boat capsized in a tunnellike cavern in western New York this week, killing a man and injuring nearly a dozen others, officials said they were investigating when the boat had last been inspected.

The answer, it turns out, is most likely never.

The 300-foot canal in the dimly lit cavern, the Lockport Cave in Lockport, N.Y., is privately owned and is not a navigable body of water. As such, the narrow, flat-bottomed boat that was carrying 28 people on Monday operated in a regulatory limbo, officials said.

As a result of the episode, Gov. Kathy Hochul directed her administration to “look at all possible ways to prevent future tragedies,” a spokesman said on Tuesday. The U.S. Coast Guard polices federally navigable waterways. But the governor’s spokesman, Matt Janiszewski, said that no state agency has jurisdiction over vessels in nonpublic, nonnavigable waterways.

The revelation that no official entity was monitoring the safety of the attraction, which is about a half-hour east of Niagara Falls, emerged as The Buffalo News reported that the episode on Monday was not the first of its kind, despite what Lockport officials have said.

In September 2015, The News reported, about 30 people from a social services charity — at least half of them teenage clients — were thrown overboard in similar fashion. All of those dumped into the canal then escaped without serious injury, according to a woman whose son was there.

The woman, Sheri Scavone, said in an interview that the capsizing had traumatized her son, who was then 15 and a good swimmer. He helped another teenager to safety.

“It was dark, the water was freezing, there was nothing to grab onto,” Ms. Scavone said, adding that, as was true this week, no one was wearing life jackets. “Twenty kids could have died that day.”

She said she decided to call attention to the earlier episode after Lockport officials said on Monday that the cave attraction, a man-made remnant of New York’s industrial past that is next to the Erie Canal, had run without incident since opening to tourists in the 1970s.

“That, I could not let pass,” Ms. Scavone said.

Daniel and Elizabeth Morrisette, who were among the boat’s passengers Monday, described in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” a similarly terrifying scene as 16 people were rescued from 60-degree water that was as deep as six feet.

“The boat was on top of me and I couldn’t find any air pockets or anything,” Mr. Morrisette said. “And I’m just trying to, like, breathe because I’m under water.”

The Morrisettes and the others were on an outing sponsored by a regional tourism group for people involved in the hospitality industry in Niagara County, officials said.

Late Tuesday, the Lockport police identified the man who was killed as Harshad Shah, 65, whose wife had accompanied him and was injured. Mr. Shah was the longtime president of the Budget Host Inn in Niagara Falls, according to an obituary posted online by a funeral home.

Reached by telephone, a relative of Mr. Shah’s declined to comment, saying the family was still grieving. In a statement to WGRZ, a Buffalo television station, Mr. Shah’s relatives described him as a “family man” and said that his wife “remains in shock, unable to come to terms with this fatal event that unfolded before her eyes.”

On Monday, Lockport’s police chief, Steven Abbott, said that the cave was being treated as a crime scene because of Mr. Shah’s death. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was also investigating what caused the boat to tip.

Lockport’s chief building inspector, Jason Dool, ordered the attraction closed after being called in by the police and finding electrical hazards. Among the problems were wires in the water, he said in an interview.

Mr. Dool said he had discussed the problems, which he did not believe had contributed to the capsizing, with an owner of the cave, Thomas Callahan, who had said he planned to address them.

Responding to a request for comment, Mr. Callahan said via text message that the Lockport Cave company was “deeply saddened by this tragedy.”

“Our condolences go out to the family,” he said. The company was cooperating with investigators, he added.

Lockport Cave is not the only tourist attraction in New York featuring an underground boat ride. Howe Caverns, which attracts 200,000 visitors a year to a site about 45 minutes west of Albany, offers something similar. An email to its general manager on Wednesday seeking information about safety measures was not immediately returned.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk. @edkshanahan

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