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March 11, 2010

UPDATE: Tugboat's calls to tanker unanswered before crash

Associated Press

PORT ARTHUR — Radio calls from a tugboat to an 800-foot tanker that made an emergency anchor drop and pulled a distress alarm went unanswered in the moments before the two vessels collided, causing the worst oil spill in Texas in 15 years, the tugboat's captain testified.



Capt. Lex Wimberley testified on Wednesday, the second day of a formal hearing by the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board into the circumstances of the Jan. 23 collision that dumped 462,000 gallons of crude oil into Gulf of Mexico waters.



The tanker and tugboat had planned to pass one another in the narrow Sabine Neches Waterway. But in the hours before the collision the tanker struggled with poor visibility, strong winds and eventually had difficulty staying on course, the tanker's first pilot, Capt. Charles Bancroft, testified on Tuesday.



His attempts to regain control by speeding up, pulling an emergency stop and throwing an anchor down at full-speed all proved fruitless, but Bancroft said he never informed the tugboat he was off course and in the west side of the channel, the lane the tugboat was to pass on.



Wimberley said when he saw the tanker throw the anchor and heard the distress signal, he tried to slow down and radio the tanker. But, he said, the calls went unanswered.



The hearing could last up to 10 days. The Coast Guard has said it will not determine what caused the crash but will use the investigation to make recommendations for improving waterway safety. The NTSB has said it will try to determine what led to the collision.

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