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Tugboat in Spill Was Warned About Tanker
NEW ORLEANS -- The pilot of a huge tanker involved in a collision on the Mississippi River repeatedly warned a tugboat pushing a barge to get out of the way, but no one on the smaller boat responded, according to radio transmissions released Saturday by the Coast Guard.
The July 23 incident caused thousands of gallons of fuel to spill and shut down part of the nation's busiest inland waterway for several days. The newly released audio recordings and radar from that day show the tugboat, Mel Oliver, crossing the river in front of the tanker, Tintamara.
"Mel Oliver, come in, Cap, you're crossing the bottom of a ship coming at you," a Coast Guard traffic controller says.
As the pilot of the tanker becomes increasingly distressed, he calls out to the captain of the Mel Oliver again and again.
"This ain't good, man," the pilot says. Then, as the two dots on a radar intersect, he says, "We just took his tow. The barge is right in front of us, and we're running it over."
The tanker's pilot was not identified.
Also Saturday, the Coast Guard released the results of its preliminary investigation. It found that the person operating the Mel Oliver had an apprentice mate's license, but no one on the vessel was properly documented to guide it. The Coast Guard said the captain of the tug was not aboard at the time of the collision.
The tug's captain and steersman apprentice and the pilot of the tanker have been summoned to a hearing in New Orleans on Aug. 12, the Coast Guard said.
There were no mechanical or electrical problems with the Tintamara, nor were there questions about the pilot's competency, the Coast Guard said. It would not comment further on the findings of the preliminary investigation.
Voice Recorder in Crash Intact
OWATONNA, Minn. -- The cockpit voice recorder from a business jet crash that killed eight people was recovered in good condition, federal investigators said. The recorder could yield information about why the Hawker 800 jet crashed while trying to land in this southern Minnesota city on Thursday. Steven Chealander, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said the agency will not speculate on a cause until the investigation is complete, which could take up to a year. The jet was carrying six casino and construction executives and two pilots when it crashed, killing all aboard.
