Beleaguered Busan pilot quits

Beleaguered Busan pilot quits The Bay Area pilot of the Cosco Busan, which disgorged 53,000 gallon of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay after striking the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7, 2007, has announced he will retire effective Oct. 1.
   Capt. John Cota, who also faces two federal felony counts of lying to the U.S. Coast Guard about prescription drugs he was taking and two misdemeanor violations of federal clean water and bird protection laws, was scheduled to face a state pilot board administrative hearing Sept. 1 that sought to repeal his state pilot license.
   In a letter sent last week to the State Board of Pilot Commissioners, Cota claimed the board's refusal to postpone the administrative hearing until he dealt with the federal charges led to his retirement decision.
   Cota claims that because of the impending federal case he would be forced to 'invoke my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution' in the state hearing. 'Since this is an impossible situation for me,' Cota's letter said, 'I have only one option and that is to retire, effective Oct. 1.'
   Cota, while expressing regret for having to leave the pilot service after a 27-year career, maintained he was not at fault for the accident.
   Cota was the local pilot assigned to move the roughly 900-foot-long Busan on Nov. 7 from the Port of Oakland to an anchorage on the north side of the Bay Bridge. Moving in heavy fog, the vessel sideswiped one of the bridge's massive concrete tower footings. While the bridge itself was not damaged, the vessel sustained a nearly 160-foot-long gash in its port side that tore open two fuel tanks, leading to the oil spill that in places lingered for several months.
   A preliminary U.S. Coast Guard investigation found the most likely cause was human error, not mechanical failure.
   Since the incident, Cota has claimed through his attorneys that other factors caused the incident, including inoperable navigation equipment aboard the container vessel, U.S. Coast Guard vessel monitoring personnel not properly notify him of the danger during his track toward the bridge, and/or that the Chinese crew of the Busan did not follow or understand his directions.
   In addition, Cota's lawyers have remained adamant that several prescribed medications the pilot was taking at the time played no part in the incident. Cota has also said he suffers from sleep apnea, one of the conditions being treated by the medications, but that this also played no part in the allision with the bridge.
   In April, a National Transportation Safety Board panel heard testimony from federal investigators that Cota was prescribed the anti-depressant Wellbutrin, the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam, the anti-drowsiness drug Provigil, as well as medication for migraines and glaucoma at the time of the accident.
   The state board, which licenses pilots in the Bay Area, also came under fire when it was discovered that Cota had a history of incidents while on the job. According to state documents, Cota appeared before the board a handful of times prior to the Busan incident. He was reprimanded in the summer of 2006 following the grounding of a bulker near the Antioch docks in February 2006. He also received a 'letter of concern' over a San Francisco Bay incident involving a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in 2003. In the 10 years prior to that, Cota was also involved in several other incidents and before that had received counseling by commission officials on several occasions.
   Cota's retirement, which may lead to the state's cancellation of the Sept. 1 administrative hearing, will not affect his federal court cases. If convicted on all four federal charges, Cota could face more than 11 years in prison and more than $600,000 in fines.
   In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the EPA Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response continue with an investigation into the accident that may lead to further charges.
   Cota has also been named in several civil lawsuits related to the case, including one brought by Bay Area crab fishermen economically impacted by the oil spill when the state closed the opening weeks of their fishing season.
   Total cost of cleaning up the Cosco Busan oil spill is expected rise to more than the $61 million predicted by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen in December.