Pilot error cited in ship grounding

Pilot error cited in ship grounding A National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the grounding of a containership in New York harbor in April 2006 has found the probable cause of the accident was “the error of the docking pilot in not using all available resources to determine the vessel’s position as he navigated the Kill Van Kull waterway.”
   The grounding of the New Delhi Express, a ship owned by Seaspan Ship Management and chartered to Hapag-Lloyd, caused $1.5 million worth of damage to the containership and $118,000 to two tugs that were assisting it.
   In a report issued this week, the NTSB said: “contributing to the cause of the grounding was the failure of both pilots to practice good bridge management,” referencing the Sandy Hook Pilot who was also on the bridge at the time of the accident.
   The NTSB made the finding despite the fact that a buoy in the channel had been improperly positioned “in only 28 feet of water, whereas it had been intended to be placed in 50 feet of water to mark the northern edge of the navigable channel.” After the accident, the buoy was relocated 26 yards.
   The Kill Van Kull is one of the busiest waterways in New York harbor leading to the main marine terminals in New York and New Jersey. The shipping channel was narrower than usual because of underwater dredging that was being done at the time of the accident.
   But the board said the erroneous positioning of the buoy “was not causal to the grounding” and citied the book United States Coast Pilot, which said, “prudent mariners will not rely on any single aid to navigation, particularly a floating aid” because they can be imprecise.
   For the full report see www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2007/MAB0702.pdf .