ASSOCIATED PRESS
The pilot of a freighter that caused a huge oil spill in the San Francisco Bay was confused about where he was headed and immediately regretted setting off that foggy morning, according to transcripts released yesterday.
“Sorry captain, I misunderstood the chart, I thought that was the center,” Capt. John Cota told the master of the Cosco Busan just after the 900-foot container ship sideswiped a support of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7.
“Yeah, it’s foggy, I shouldn’t have gone. It’s still, uh … I’m not going to do well on this one,” Capt. Cota said several minutes later after steering the freighter into anchorage as it disgorged 53,000 gallons of oil into the fragile ecosystem of the Bay.
Capt. Cota, who has pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence and violating environmental laws, declined to testify at a two-day National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing that began yesterday. His attorney did not return a call for comment.
The first day of the hearing focused on procedures at the port and aboard the ship that morning. Capt. Cota, a pilot who boarded locally, was working with a Chinese-speaking crew and a master who had never been in the San Francisco-Oakland port. The captain and three crew members also refused to testify, although Capt. Cota is the only person charged in the accident.
Transcripts of the voyage data recorder show the pilot and crew struggling in English and Chinese to read navigational devices amid anxiety about thick fog.
“I’ve tried to target five times, never plots. That’s not good for fog,” Capt. Cota complained as they took off.
A crew member aboard the Hong Kong-flagged ship seemed to express surprise that the ship was setting out, saying in Chinese, “For American ships under such conditions, they would not be under way.”
Moments before the accident, the chief officer said in Chinese, “the bridge column, the bridge column.”
The huge freighter then sideswiped a bridge support.
“Is the ship all right? Is the ship all right?” Capt. Cota asked in English.
“No. No. No. It’s leaking, leaking,” replied another ship officer.
NTSB officials said the ship’s electronic charts did not fully comply with international standards.
In the moments after the crash, Capt. Cota and the Chinese captain squabbled over who was to blame.
“You said this was the center of the bridge,” Capt. Cota said, evidently pointing to charts.
“Yes,” the captain responded.
“No, this is the center. That’s the tower. This is the tower. That’s why we hit it. I thought that was the center,” said Capt. Cota.
“It’s a buoy,” the captain replied, apparently referring to the buoy that marks the bridge tower.
The captain, master Sun Mao Cai, said in Chinese to a crew member: “What I said to him was not incorrect. This is the center of the bridge, not of the channel. As the pilot you should know full well.”
Capt. Cota then recounted the events to an unidentified person by cell phone, saying, “Then he said, ’Oh, no, these are the lights for the center of the bridge. These red things.’ I know — I mean I should know — this.”
The Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) had advised Capt. Cota that visibility ranged from an eighth of a mile to a quarter of a mile. The VTS transcripts indicate early concerns that the response to contain the oil spill lagged.
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