NYC Ferry Head: Caught In Lies?

A supervisor's claims that the city vigorously enforced a key safety rule was undercut by his own captains, according to new documents released Tuesday by federal officials probing the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash that killed 11 people.

Captain Patrick Ryan, the city's director of ferries, insisted repeatedly in an interview with investigators days after the crash that rules clearly required two pilots to be in a ferry's pilot house when docking, barring some unforeseen emergency.

The National Transportation Safety Board released transcripts of dozens of interviews about the Oct. 15, 2003 crash, which shattered the calm of a routine commute home and left dozens of injured passengers screaming for help on the shredded deck of the Andrew J. Barberi.

The investigation has centered on why assistant captain Richard Smith was alone in the wheelhouse when he apparently collapsed at the controls, causing the Barberi to slam into a maintenance pier.

Smith pleaded guilty in August to 11 counts of manslaughter for his part in the accident.

Captain Michael Gansas has struck a deal with prosecutors that a single charge of lying to investigators will be dropped if he cooperates in their case against Ryan, who has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges.

The NTSB's documents reveal the remarkable reversal of fortune for Ryan as the investigation progressed; he went from being a member of the federal investigative team to a top target of federal criminal investigators looking to assign blame.

Prosecutors now charge Ryan never told new pilots about a rule that the captain and assistant captain share the wheelhouse during docking. Federal authorities say Ryan also failed to enforce the rule.

Eight days after the incident, Ryan told NTSB probers that both the captain and his assistant should be together at the controls at all key times.

"In any weather conditions, channel conditions, docking, those conditions they are really - that's when they both need to be there," Ryan told probers.

Later in his testimony, Ryan insisted the rule must be "followed all the time. ... That's our standard operating procedure."

But captains working under Ryan disagreed.

When the NTSB asked Captain Andrew Covella if the two-person policy was always in effect, he answered: "Every trip? Not every trip. No, if I had confidence in the man and I had to do other tasks, inspect something."

Port Captain Joseph Ecock offered a much looser interpretation of the wheel house staffing rules: "If (the captain) doesn't want to be in the pilot house, if he has to go do something, he can do it, as long as he knows a qualified person is in the pilot house."

During Ecock's interview, Barry Strauch of the NTSB voiced wonder at the different versions of the rule they were hearing from ferry captains and their supervisors.

"We are hearing too many interpretations of that. ... I would think with something like this, that there would be no misunderstanding," said Strauch.

Ecock later said he didn't know of any written rule that would require the captain to stay in the pilot house.

Ryan's lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The documents released Tuesday also offered a glimpse into the immediate reactions of those who played pivotal roles in the disaster.

Ryan, in testifying before the NTSB, recounted his first conversations with both the captain, Gansas, and the assistant captain, Smith, immediately after the wreck.

"Patty, I'm sorry, I blacked out. It's all my fault. I killed all these people," Smith said, according to Ryan's testimony.

Gansas made a similar statement when confronted by Ryan moments later, according to the testimony.

"He said, 'Don't tell me to calm down. All these people are dead. I killed all these people,"' Ryan told investigators.

The NTSB released the transcripts along with numerous other documents and photographs related to the investigation.

Smith acknowledged in his guilty plea that he neglected his duties by taking medications that made him lose consciousness at the controls.

Gansas has agreed to cooperate in the investigation of Ryan in exchange for prosecutors dropping the sole charge that had been lodged against him: lying to Coast Guard investigators.

By Devlin Barrett