A faulty assumption and poor communication resulted in a collision between an offshore supply vessel and a Coast Guard cutter on October, 2020, in the Sabine Pass between Texas and Louisiana, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Actually, the supply vessel managed to hit the cutter twice.
The NTSB just issued its report after investigating the accident, basically saying the captain of the supply vessel made an incorrect assumption about the location of the cutter and the buoy it was working on that caused the first collision, and then both captains were involved in a lack of communication that resulted in the second.
The background: The Cheramie Bo-Truk No 33 is a 168-foot, steel-hulled offshore supply vessel with a crew of five. It has three props and a bow thruster, and it was outbound for the sea in the Sabine Pass near Texas Point, Texas.
The Harry Claiborne is a 175-foot steel-hulled Coast Guard cutter that was servicing several buoys in the area that had been moved by a hurricane that passed through two days before. It had a crew of 24.
The channel is 600 feet wide. At the time of the accident, 1544 on Oct. 11, there was 10-mile visibility and calm seas.
The captain of the supply vessel called the cutter on his VHF asking to overtake the cutter on the cutter’s starboard side. The cutter was next to a buoy at the time. The captain of the supply vessel told the NTSB that he “didn’t realize that the buoy was on location” where it was supposed to be.
As he started to pass, the supply vessel captain realized that his depth sounder showed it was running out of water. He tried to abort the pass but he collided with the cutter. The supply vessel then grounded in mud alongside the channel.
After working for 45 minutes to get out of the mud, the supply vessel captain called the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service to inform them of his plans to refloat the vessel. He did not communicate, however, with the cutter.
The supply vessel then tried to maneuver around the cutter’s stern, but its bow hit the cutter’s starboard quarter. Three crew on the cutter suffered minor injuries. There were $440,879 worth of damages to the cutter, and $65,072 to the supply vessel. Read more:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MIR2204.pdf
