Coast Guard detains crew in oil spill probe

[unhappycamper]

Coast Guard detains crew in oil spill probe
By Erica Werner - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 12, 2007 9:18:37 EST

SAN FRANCISCO — The entire crew of the cargo ship that sideswiped a bridge, causing San Francisco Bay’s worst oil spill in nearly two decades, were being held for questioning as part of a criminal investigation, a Coast Guard official said Sunday.

The Cosco Busan, which leaked 58,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the bay Wednesday, fouling miles of coastline and killing dozens of birds, was being detained at the Port of Oakland by the Coast Guard. Crew members will be free to go once federal investigators have questioned them, said Capt. William Uberti, the Coast Guard commander for the bay region.

Darrell Wilson, a representative for Regal Stone Ltd., the Hong Kong-based company that owns the Cosco Busan, declined to comment Sunday on the investigation.

Uberti said he notified the U.S. attorney’s office Saturday about problems involving management and communication among members of the crew on the ship’s bridge. This includes the helmsman, watch officer, and ship’s master — part of the Cosco Busan’s Asia-based crew — as well as the pilot, Capt. John Cota, among the most experienced of the seamen who guide ships through the bay’s treacherous waters.

Uberti declined to specify what problems he reported to federal prosecutors.

“It was just the way that everybody interacted” on the bridge, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_sfoilspill_071112/

[DCKit]

1. Are the Chinese becoming more overt in their attempts to kill us all? nt