Last March, we posted about the grounding of the container ship Ever Forward near Baltimore in the Chesapeake Bay. The ship failed to make a turn in the Craighill channel and ran hard aground on a mud flat, where it remained stuck for more than 35 days. At the time, we noted that it was unclear whether human error or a mechanical failure caused the casualty. The Ever Forward had a pilot aboard at the time of the grounding.
The Coast Guard has now answered that question. Their accident investigation report “determined the incident’s causal factors to be the pilot’s failure to maintain situational awareness and attention while navigating, and inadequate bridge resource management.” They found that the accident was due to the pilot’s inattention while on his cell phone including sending texts, making a series of phone calls, and drafting an email while the ship was underway.
The executive summary of the report noted that “a licensed Maryland State Pilot … (was) in direction and control of the vessel,” and just prior to the grounding of the Hong Kong-flagged Ever Forward, he exited the active navigation of his portable pilot unit to view a previous transit.
“(Pilot 1) also made a series of five phone calls amounting to over 60 minutes of time during the course of his outbound transit,” the report stated. “He also sent two text messages and began drafting an email immediately before the grounding occurred regarding issues he experienced with facility line handlers.”
WavyTV.com notes that the time the pilot spent on his phone amounted to about half of the vessel’s two-hour voyage, and the person was doing so right up until the incident took place. The pilot also admitted to relying solely on the portable pilot unit for navigation and was watching a playback of a previous transit when the vessel’s grounding took place.
“The Pilot was drafting an email on their personal cell phone in the minutes leading up to the planned turn south, when the vessel sailed through its waypoint and grounding,” the Coast Guard’s findings of concern on distracted operations stated. “The vessel’s bridge team attempted to cue the pilot by repeating the heading. However, by the time the bridge team became more assertive about the ship’s heading, it was too late to prevent the vessel from grounding.”
The Coast Guard determined that what initiated the issues with the vessel was its grounding.
“No mechanical issues or equipment failures contributed to this marine casualty,” according to the report.
I was flabbergasted to read this post and the report. My first trip to sea in January 1954 found me steering the ship in these very waters. I was just 17 at the time looked about 14/15 and the Pilot, quite rightfully, questioned my being the on the wheel. However our Master told him that I was an experienced helmsman from fishing boats on the South Coast of Ireland.
To read of the behaviour of this Pilot in a vessel ten times the size of ours in 1954 is beyond believe. Fortunately this must be an exceptionally unusual person and case. In the 50 years I spent on the Bridge from that child helmsman to Master the Pilots by and large were competent.
I hope the Chief Pilot has had a Pilots meeting reviewing professional protocols and banning personal cell phone use. Certainly a line handlers problem on a previous occasion should not have resulted in this multi-million event.
Good Watch
We have a rule at the table that phones are to be put away. Even my granddaughter has been known to say “put phone in pocket” when an somebody breaks the rule. It seems like piloting a ship up the Chesapeake might have similar restrictions.