The pilot and crew members aboard a cargo ship had reservations about the boat’s course shortly before it struck a bridge over the Tennessee River, but no one stepped up to check written or electronic charts against what they were seeing, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday.
Federal investigators said the crew of the Delta Mariner also ignored a broadcast warning about navigation lights being out on the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge on Jan. 26, 2012, and failed to heed a warning from a docked towing ship as it neared the span.
Investigators also concluded that white warning lights on the bridge had been out for several years and other lights had shorted out in the days before the wreck. Investigators chided Kentucky officials for failing to tackle light maintenance on the bridge to solve the problem.
NTSB lead investigator Liam LaRue said a contract pilot maneuvered the ship toward the one lighted span without consulting either the written charts or electronic equipment on board. Those charts and equipment could have guided them to either stop the ship or redirect to a taller section of the bridge.
“The problem is they didn’t even look at the chart in this case,” LaRue said. “No one said, ‘This is a multi-span bridge, but I’m only seeing one lit span.'”
The missed and ignored warnings were part of a series of errors that led to the cargo ship striking the bridge and tearing down a 322-foot section of the span that carries traffic from near Aurora, Ky., to Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area in western Kentucky. The NTSB made its findings public during a hearing on the wreck Tuesday afternoon.
David Rayburn, a bridge lighting specialist for the NTSB, said a string of white navigation lights had been out on the bridge for more than a year before the wreck. Other navigation lights alerting boaters to the high point on the bridge to pass under shorted out days before the wreck, Rayburn said.
The lowest point of the bridge had two red lights and a green light working, but was too low for the Delta Mariner to pass under, Rayburn said. The rest of the bridge was unlit. The pilot steered toward the lit span, Rayburn said.
“Bridge lighting can be critical to the ability of mariners to safely navigate inland waterways,” Rayburn said.
The issues with the crew started when no one heeded two radioed warnings from the U.S. Coast Guard about navigation lights on the bridge being out, LaRue said.
While the ship’s owner and operator, Seattle-based Foss Maritime, had extra crew on board, including two Mississippi River pilots working under contract, to try and ensure safety, few people knew their responsibilities and no one felt they had the authority to tell the contract pilot to stop or turn around the ship, investigator Larry Bowling said.
As the Delta Mariner approached the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge, the Addi Bell, a ship docked at the side of the river, tried to radio the cargo ship, but no one responded, LaRue said.
“They got the sense the vessel coming down the river wasn’t lined up right,” LaRue said.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said the crew expressed misgivings about the ship’s course, but no one checked either written charts or electronic navigation equipment.
“They weren’t sure they were going to hit it until they hit it,” LaRue said.