BC Ferry sinks!

[PW2]

Apparently no one was seriously injured, which is lucky. Pt Hardy area can be nasty this time of year!<br /><br />Link:<br /><br /> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002881845_webferry22.html

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

<br /><br />The crew done good PW. They must have been very well trained to ensure all onboard were saved without any serious injury.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Good job by the crew....<br />How did they hit a rock, though?....JK

 

[QC]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Wow!! Middle of the night too. Great job getting everybody off!! Weird to have something uncharted on major routes . . .

 

[PW2]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

The crew did good, as well as the Canadian CG.<br /><br />I have spent a fair bit of time working in the Pt Hardy area, and have travelled that ferry route several times, and the idea that that could happen in that area and result in no casualties simply amazes me.<br /><br />I suspect that ferry captain will have some 'splainin to do. That is a well travelled, well charted route, and I find it difficult to believe the people that make the charts somehow overlooked a big rock!

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

I have made that trip from Rupert to Hardy and<br />Kelsy Bay over the last 30 years more than a dozen times<br />on the Queen of the North and the Queen of Prince Rupert <br />It is a sheltered route along the Inside Passage<br /><br />You got that right PW, that captain ain't going<br />to make a deck hand anymore. He will likely loose<br />his license.<br />It sure is a blessing that everyone escaped the<br />Queen before she went down.<br />I hope this wont effect the crossing to the Queen Charlotte's<br />this summer. They are going to have<br />to come up with a replacement to the Queen of the<br />North quickly.

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Report says their may be a couple missing on Ferry sinking<br /><br /> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060322.w3ferry032211/BNStory/National/home

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

I have the charts for the area were she sank off<br />Gil Island in Wright sound. The depth runs<br />from roughly 1600 ft to 800 ft. There is some<br />rock outcropping close in to the shore. The<br />Captain would of had to of been way off course to<br />strike anything in that channel.

 

[PW2]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

I really liked the perception of this guy:<br /><br /> B.C. Ferries president David Hahn refused to speculate on what went wrong, but noted that the vessel involved had travelled the same waters "many, many times over many years."<br /><br />"I think something went catastrophically wrong,"<br />--------------------<br /><br />You think???!!!<br /><br />Well, sad to say, that water this time of year is cold, and if that couple somehow ended up in the water, they would not be swimming for long

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Ya PW.... He ran into the shore!!!!

 

[PW2]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

In fairness, I do agree with the notion of a full, complete, and impartial investigation, and not jumping to conclusions before all the facts are known, but, to be on the safe side <br /><br />I think I'd pull the pilot's license of that captain, and not let him pilot as much as a rowboat in a millpond until all the facts in this case are known.

 

[brother chris]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

I doubt they will ever find out for sure what happened. At the moment they are not going to bring her up, since she is 600ft below. <br />They said they are going to go by witnesses statements in order to figure out what happened.<br /><br />And someone said they saw the missing pair, in town. <br />Hopefully they are alright. <br /><br />That area is known for its weird weather patterns.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Total instument failure is the only thing that might be remotely exonerating....<br />(Use your good eye!)<br />Or engine failure....<br />Other than that.....<br />You might be useful in the galley ....JK

 

[magster65]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

I woke up to this story this morning. I have a bunch of friends that work for the ferries... I was worried at first!<br />They do evacuation and rescue drills once a week that everyone must participate in. The crew on that was on there (other than the bridge crew) should be proud. They saved a lot of lives today.<br />As for why it crashed... I'm very curious! I can't think of a valid reason. A few years back the Mill Bay / Brentwood run (same BC ferries) ran aground in Mill Bay right in front of the terminal. The investigation determined the captain had fallen asleep at the helm as they approached the dock. Same captain maybe?

 

[KingsPoint]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

While it's too early to speculate on what exactly caused this. . .<br /><br />If I remember correctly, this area only has shoals relatively near the shore. Obviously, this was not an area that requires close passing of these rocks. The conning officer should have been keeping plots of the ships' position every three minutes, especially given the weather conditions. In addition, more lookouts should have been posted, given the darkness and limited visibility (I don't know if this rock had a light on it or not). The addition of more lookouts in certain conditions and in certain areas is an internationally established law for bridge watchstanding.<br /><br />This sort of thing is bound to happen because the number one fear that a ferry crew has is complacency. The monotony of the same route over and over again leads to "shortcuts" being taken (It is for this reason that Washington State Ferries purposely does not install autopilots on any of their vessels and they also have a remarkable safety record). <br /><br />My prediction is that this will turn out to be a simple lack of paying attention to the situation and a breakdown of established standard procedure.<br /><br />Thank god that no one was killed (as far as we know for now) and kudos to the whole crew for abandoning the ship in an orderly and timely fashion.

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Missing couple may be dead.<br /><br /> http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...22/ferry_sink_060323/20060323?hub=CTVNewsAt11

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

She ran right into Gil Island. Its no small<br />rock. Its a very large Island.

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

We had a similar case in Scotland many years ago although the outcome was lot better in that the ship was saved as were all the passengers and crew. The outcome of the enquiry was that captain had decided to make up some lost time by altering course slightly and coming in closer to shore than usual. Apparently he'd used this ploy on many previous occassions but this time had forgotten to allow for tide and wave height <br />Last I heard he was a deckhand on a boating pond <br /><br />Royal Navy minesweeper ran ashore several years ago: state of the art vessel packed with the latest sat-nav, gps, radar, sonar etc etc. Very experienced crew too. The cause was later found to be electrical failure: main generator failed which threw the steering/helm down because it's electrically controlled. All control over the engines from the bridge was lost when the power went down. The skipper even tried to deploy the anchors as they raced towards the shore but.......they are controlled by electrical switches on the bridge <br />Turns out she'd just come into service and the stand-by generator had never been tested with all systems running: when the main gennie failed, the stand-by automatically switched in but blew immediately as it wasn't rated for the amount of power required with all systems on. Loads of damage, few minor casualities and a lot of senior red-faces all round.<br /><br />Hope the Canadian Authorities find the two missing passengers safe and well: keep us updated!

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Here is some new interesting news about the sinking<br />for anyone interested.<br /><br /> http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=5b3793c1-91da-426b-8655-3aec7b877b26

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: BC Ferry sinks!

Thanks for the update Nosleep, that's a brave little boy.<br /><br />I loved the part about him saying "and then we were put on the boring Coastguard Ice-Breaker"