The reporter who discovered the vessel implied that it was the main engine, that he and the cameraman had been unable to shut it off because the key was missing and that all they had been able to do was “reduce the idle” by closing the throttle.
Well the engine might be the generator. Just saying as a boat owner that that’s what I’d have done if I wanted to be sure the vessel wouldn’t sink. In a bad storm you can’t trust the batteries to keep a vessel afloat. Now if it was in gear that’d be a bad sign; missing pilot and all.
If the kill switch doesn't work, surely grinding the prop into pavement would? This story seems too weird...maybe it was a landlubber reporter.