USCG failed to warn Cosco Busan

The Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) knew the Cosco Busan was close to hitting the Oakland Bay Bridge, but did not warn the ship, the National Transport Safety Board said yesterday. Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the VTS told investigators that it was decided to give pilot John Cota two minutes radio silence to allow him to navigate under the bridge. Knudson said the reasons for not warning the ship “certainly will be part of our investigation”. Meanwhile, Cota’s attorney said that the pilot maintains that the radar was faulty just before the accident. “The closer we came to the bridge, the more the picture on both radars deteriorated,” Cota said in a statement released by lawyer John Meadows. “The radar presentation, in fact, deteriorated to such an extent that the raycon at the centre of the bridge was not showing on all of the radars, nor were the towers, the bridge piers and the buoys which indicated the towers. All I could get was a distortion of the bridge – a thick black ribbon without any details.” Commercial fishermen in the bay area have filed a $100M class action suit against Regal Stone, Hanjin Shipping and Cosco. The action is being handled by William Audet, who also filed suits after the Exxon Valdez spill.