Ship Captain In Aleutian Oil Spill To Admit Lying To Investigators

[hatrack]

"The captain of the Selendang Ayu admits to initially giving federal investigators false information about how long the cargo ship's engines were shut down before it wrecked in the Aleutian Islands, according to a representative of the ship's owner.

Six crew members on the Malaysian-flagged vessel were killed during a botched helicopter rescue in December that occurred just before the captain was to get aboard. The soybean-hauling ship wound up spilling more than 335,000 gallons of fuel in pristine Alaskan waters.

EDIT

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage also has been looking into the conduct of the company to determine if criminal negligence contributed to the accident, but it's unclear where that investigation stands. Federal prosecutors declined comment yesterday. Singh told investigators he shut off the ship's engines about two hours later than he really had. The time he gave initially was roughly 11 hours before officials in Dutch Harbor were notified of the serious mechanical problems. Lawrence said the captain later corrected the information.

EDIT

The timing of the engine shutdown is an essential part of the NTSB investigation. The 738-foot Selendang Ayu suffered a problem in one of the cylinders in its huge, slow-speed diesel engine while on a voyage from Seattle to Xiamen, China, on Dec. 6. Experts say the most prudent action would have been calling for a tug immediately, and sailing to nearby Dutch Harbor, about 100 miles away, to make repairs. Instead, the captain and chief engineer -- who died during the rescue -- shut down the engines in 25- to 30-foot seas, a dangerous situation. They waited about 13 hours, not 11 as the captain said initially, before calling the harbormaster at Dutch Harbor to request tug assistance."

EDIT

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/218081_freighter30.html