PHILADELPHIA — A $17 million settlement was reached Wednesday in the wrongful-death case of two Hungarian students killed two years ago when a tugboat-guided barge slammed into and sank their amphibious sightseeing boat, dumping dozens of people into the fast-moving Delaware River.

Under terms of the surprise settlement approved by a judge after two days of testimony in what was expected to be a monthlong federal trial, families of the two victims will split $15 million and 18 surviving passengers will split $2 million.

“The families are deeply grateful to the court for recognizing that their children were important and did not deserve to die in vain,” said attorney Robert Mongeluzzi, representing the victims’ families, who were on a plane returning to Hungary and were unaware a settlement had been reached.

Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16, whose group was visiting the U.S. through a church exchange program, drowned when their amphibious sightseeing boat, called a duck boat, was slammed by the empty sludge barge and capsized on July 7, 2010.

Their families filed wrongful-death lawsuits against K-Sea Transportation, of East Brunswick, N.J., which operated the tugboat guiding the barge upriver, and Ride the Ducks, of Norcross, Ga., which operated the tour boat.