Ship's Crew Detained After Huge Oil Spill

Coast Guard Preliminary Probe Finds Human Error In San Francisco Bay Collision

(AP)  The entire crew of the cargo ship that sideswiped a bridge, causing San Francisco Bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades, has been detained as part of a criminal investigation, a Coast Guard official said Sunday.

Capt. William Uberti said he notified the U.S. attorney's office on Saturday about issues involving management and communication among members of the bridge crew: the helmsman, the watch officer, the ship's master and the pilot.

The entire crew of the Cosco Busan, which disgorged 58,000 gallons of oil into the Bay on Wednesday, is being detained on the ship for questioning, said Uberti, head of the Coast Guard for Northern California.

Uberti declined to specify what problems he reported. A call to that office was not returned Sunday.

A preliminary Coast Guard investigation found that human error, not mechanical failure, caused the ship to crash into a support on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The wreck left a gash nearly 100 feet long on the side of the 926-foot vessel and ruptured two of the vessel's fuel tanks, causing heavy bunker fuel to leak into the bay. The spill has killed dozens of sea birds and spurred the closure of nearly two dozen beaches and piers.

Investigators were focusing on possible communication problems between the ship's crew, the pilot guiding the vessel and the Vessel Traffic Service, the Coast Guard station that monitors the bay's shipping traffic.

A language barrier between the vessel's pilot, Capt. John Cota, and the ship's all-Chinese crew was not likely a factor in the crash, since the ship's captain and officers are required to speak English, officials said.

The National Transportation Safety Board arrived Sunday to launch its own investigation. The agency will look at everything from how fatigued the ship's crew and captain were to any mechanical or weather issues that may have been involved in the accident, said Debbie Hersman, an NTSB spokeswoman.

The NTSB's investigation, expected to take up to a year, also will examine the initial response by the Coast Guard and the company who owns the vessel, she said.

Hersman would not say whether the NTSB's inspectors would aid federal prosecutors, but did say her agency would cooperate with all parallel inquiries.

The Coast Guard has come under criticism because of a lag of several hours between when agency officials learned that the spill was thousands of gallons, not 140 as initially reported, and when that information was given to local officials and the public.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have both called for swift and thorough investigations of the spill, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency.

Feinstein met with Coast Guard officials Sunday and said the system for responding to spills needed to be improved, especially communication with communities where toxic sludge began washing up on beaches shortly after the crash.

"There were a lot of unusual things such as weather, but that should not excuse this," Feinstein said. "It's clear that the cities around the bay should have been brought into this faster than they were."

The head of the Coast Guard defended his agency's response.

"On the surface it would appear that we did everything by the book in this case as far as responding," Allen said.

He said preliminary information suggests it took time to figure out the extent of the spill partly because sounding tubes used to measure how much fuel is in the oil tank were damaged in the crash. To accurately measure the extent of a spill officials must measure how much fuel is left in the tanks, he said.

Efforts to clean up the mess intensified over the weekend. The Coast Guard increased the number of ships to 20 from 11 to work on skimming the oil from the bay, said Petty Officer Sherri Eng.

Nearly 20,000 gallons of oily liquid had been sucked up so far, and about 770 workers have taken part in cleanup efforts on the water and along beaches to mop up the damage, a job that is expected to last weeks or possibly months.

Rescue teams raced to save hundreds of seabirds tarred with black shipping fuel. At least 60 birds were found dead while 200 live birds were recovered and sent to a rehabilitation center in Solano County.

The National Park Service reported Sunday that thick balls of oil had been discovered on the pristine shoreline of Point Reyes National Seashore along the Pacific coast. The oil has put several sensitive and threatened species at risk, according to the park service, including western snowy plovers, brown pelicans and several seal species.

[creeper00]

To all of you who can''t seem to figure out why they''re saying this accident should never have happened, I give you one word...

RADAR!

Fog is not a factor, period. Ships, like airplanes have sophisticated radar. Like airplanes, they can move in complete fog. Unlike airplanes, they''re not going four hundred miles an hour.

The Bay Bridge has plenty of room for that ship to pass through it and the supports are clearly visible on radar. Fog is a fact of life in San Francisco Bay and ships routinely transit that bridge in even worse conditions. That this one did not is remarkable.

I believe we''re in for some surprising testimony where that ship is concerned.

[feelfree1]

Any update from Rear Admiral Bone, or Front Admiral ****?

[incog-nito]

The ship was reportedly carrying a shipment of leaded toys, just in time for Christmas.

[zorlacskates]

god, the right wing comments here are really, really stupid. human error caused a collison that released massive amounts of oil into the environment, and now the damage has to be cleaned up. nothing to do with iraq, ronald reagan, lisa simpson (stupidest comment ever), or any other idiot thing you bushies can dream up.

[j-whitman]

screen_ident,,,, I guess I''m the one to bust your bubble this morning ------- Lisa Simpson is a cartoon, & the Simpson''s aren''t real,,,, But you Bush Lovers can''t recognize cartoons from reality can you ??

[fibonacci_]

Immer mit der Ruhe Soldat.

[soldat44]

Heartwarming indeed to see the Coast Guard scrambling to rescue birds endangered by oil.

Could we send the C.G. to Iraq?

Perhaps they could rescue the thousands of American soldiers endangered by %u201Coil%u201D ------ several thousand of them have actually already died.


Posted by psy_war at 09:18 AM : Nov 11, 2007

They''re already there a$$wipe. Do your homework.

Semper Paratus

[name_verify]

All Lisa Simpson type Libs in SF showed up at to volunteer to clean birds, and the government just told them to shut and get out of the way. Now Lisa Simpson is bawling her eyes out. Libs.....

LOL

[trenticus-2009]

Isn''t it al human error when ships run aground and spew? No wonder our fuel prices are so high. No one can get it to port safely!

[lastdance4]

By CNBC.com | 09 Nov 2007 | 01:47 PM ET

Citigroup''s Charles Prince Will Get $40 Million

Citigroup, the largest bank in the United States, said on Thursday that its former Chairman and Chief Executive, Charles Prince, will take home roughly $40 million as he retires from the company.

Citi shares have fallen for eight straight sessions, in a slump that has chopped $48.5 billion off the bank''s market capitalization.

The $40 million is in addition to about $53 million of shares Prince already owns,
Prince is receiving considerably less than the $161.5 million that Merrill Lynch''s O''Neal received

Criminal Corporate America
Can Commit any Crime they want to...

Lastdance