Coast Guard Points to Spill Ship’s Pilot
By SCOTT LINDLAW and ERICA WERNER
SAN FRANCISCO – Coast Guard radars could not have clearly shown a cargo ship was dangerously close to the Bay Bridge, a spokesman said Friday, a day after investigators disclosed the vessel wasn’t warned moments before it crashed in dense fog and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil.
Capt. Jim McPherson said the Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Service is to keep ships from colliding with each other and to provide advisory information. It’s not like air traffic control, which takes direct control of an aircraft, McPherson told The Associated Press. “It’s a really important distinction,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Nov. 7 crash and the Coast Guard’s response, disclosed Thursday that the VTS had radioed the Cosco Busan’s pilot to question his course, but had not advised him the ship was in trouble.
The VTS questioned the ship’s course and intentions three times prior to the collision, according to a federal official with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
Then, as the ship struggled through fog, about two minutes of silence passed between the Coast Guard’s inquiries and when Capt. John Cota reported he had struck a tower footing of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
According to McPherson, radar at the VTS operates on a 12-mile scale and does not have the level of detail to show the protective fenders on the bridge supports like the one sideswiped by the Cosco Busan.
“The resolution on the radar is such that you can’t tell with certainty it’s going to occur,” McPherson said. “We had no way of knowing, on the type of scale it is.”
“The VTS won’t have any confirmation that a vessel hasn’t hit one of the support structures until it clears the bridge,” McPherson said, adding that the location of fixed objects is clearly marked on a pilot’s navigational charts.
John Meadows, a lawyer for the pilot, disputed McPherson’s characterization of the radar.
“A properly functioning radar shows not only the towers, but it will also show the piers and the buoys on either side of the piers,” Meadows said. “The VTS should have had access to that. Any good, working radar would show these things.”
McPherson said it wasn’t the agency’s role to put the ship on a different course.
“We provide advisory assistance, but the captain and the pilot of the vessel are at all times in control of the vessel,” McPherson said.
Asked about McPherson’s comment, Michael Hansen, a spokesman for ship owner Regal Stone Ltd., said: “The master and pilot make the decisions. At this point I’d have to agree with the Coast Guard. They were working under procedures and regulations in place at the time.”
NTSB has acknowledged that VTS is not empowered to order a ship to do anything, but said it would probe whether such a Coast Guard facility should do more to guide the ship away from the bridge.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for granting the Coast Guard expanded powers in controlling the movement of ships.
“The Coast Guard should be able to control the direction and speed of ships when necessary,” Feinstein said.
McPherson said that such a change would have to be made legislatively and that the Coast Guard would welcome the opportunity to work with congressional staff to look at possibilities for making it safer to come into and out of ports.
About a third of the toxic oil that leaked from a cargo ship has been scooped up by skimming boats or has evaporated, authorities said Friday as they prepared to release injured birds back into the wild.
Nearly 1,000 birds have been captured, but nearly 200 have died in captivity or have been euthanized, Edinger said. In all, the department has counted nearly 900 dead birds, he said.
Many beaches remain closed, but a handful were beginning to reopen.
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Erica Werner reported from Washington; Scott Lindlaw reported from San Francisco.