Casualties

By Richard Knee

JUNE
6/11/09 A Bell 206 helicopter made an emergency landing in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 57 miles south of Dauphin Island, Ala. Several vessels responded, assisting all four people on the helicopter safely to the Main Pass 265 oil platform, where a Coast Guard MH-65C helicopter picked them up and flew them to a New Orleans hospital as a precaution. The offshore supply vessel Lafayette took the downed helicopter in tow.

6/20/09 A Coast Guard helicopter hoisted a 22-year-old crewman suffering appendicitis off the Chinese container ship Fei He, 100 miles south of Dutch Harbor.

6/21/09 A 47-foot Coast Guard lifeboat rescued two fishermen from the sinking 36-foot FV Hot Tuna approximately 1,000-
yards from the Siuslaw River entrance near Florence, Ore.

6/21/09 At 1:30 a.m., Seattle police responded to a large fight on board an Argosy Cruises tour boat moored at a pier in the 1100 block of Alaskan Way following a “three-hour tour.” Seattlepi.com reported that about 50 people were fighting when the officers arrived. The crowd looked “loud and raucous and showed obvious signs of intoxication.”

As police attempted to board, they were blocked at the gangway. According to the Seattle Police blotter,”While moving the group off the gangway, a female suspect assaulted anofficer by jumping on his back, grabbing his throat and scratching him. She was arrested. A second female suspect assaulted another officer, the officer sustaining scratches to her throat from the altercation. The second suspect was also arrested.”

6/22/09 The 376-foot, four-masted Russian barque Kruzenshtern limped into Charleston with a broken foremast. The damage was incurred during a fierce thunderstorm nearly halfway through its trip from Bermuda to Charleston. No injuries were reported.
(Cargolaw.com)

6/22/09 A vehicle and cell phone were left abandoned aboard the Washington State Ferry Tacoma. Fearing the owner may have gone overboard, an extensive search involving WSF personnel, Coast Guard, Washington State, Seattle and Bainbridge Island police and fire departments continued. The car was traced to a Spokane woman, whose family advised she was suffering bipolar disorder. She had walked off the ferry and was located a few days later in Seattle.

6/25/09 The tugboat Capt. Mack took on water in Lake Pontchartrain, Louis., one mile northeast of the Lakefront airport. A 41-foot Coast Guard rescue boat quickly took off the two crewmembers before the vessel completely capsized and sank.

6/25/09 The 70-foot yacht Inger struck a piling of the first span of the Bonner Bridge in Oregon Inlet, N.C., sustaining damage to the right side of the boat. The Coast Guard escorted the yacht back to port.

6/25/09 Yom Kai Bao Fang, 37 a Chinese crewmember, was missing and presumed to have fallen overboard from the 685-foot Hong Kong container ship Sao Paulo approximately 754 miles southwest of Kodiak, Alaska. A search involving the ship and two Coast Guard Hercules aircraft failed to locate any trace of him.

6/26/09 Paul Thomas Rysz Jr., 33, of Norwalk, Conn., was hit on the head by a steel pin while working on a pile-driving barge as crew job foreman for Norwalk Marine Contractors in Pine Creek, Conn. The Connecticut Post reports he died of his injuries on July 3 at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

6/26/09 The Panamanian tanker Kriti Jade was enroute from the Tesoro Avon refinery in Martinez, Calif. to Anchorage 9 in San Francisco when the upper portion of its mast “made contact” with the Union Pacific railroad and Benicia-Martinez Highway bridges. The ship was boarded at Anchorage 9 by a team of Coast Guard investigators. Initial reports from Union Pacific and Cal Trans indicate that damage to the bridges is minor and cosmetic in nature.

6/27/09 A yacht was in the process of being discharged off the M/V Catalonia at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal in San Diego when it fell and sank. A commercial salvage company recovered the yacht and moved the yacht to their facilities.

JULY
7/1/09 The Staten Island ferry Sen. John J. Marchi apparently lost power, resulting in a hard landing at the Saint George’s Ferry
Terminal in Staten Island, New York. Fifteen passengers were reported injured in the incident.

7/4/09 Nhial Opiew, 38, fell overboard from the 140-foot FV Rebecca Irene out of Seattle 24 miles southeast of Umnak Island, Alaska. He was not located in a search involving three fishing vessels. Coast Guard air assistance was hampered by bad weather.

7/7/09 A Japanese crewman on the Seattle-based 192-foot FV Alaska Warrior was lost overboard in Amukta Pass 218 miles west of Dutch Harbor. Only his rain gear was found during an extensive air and sea search

7/9/09 The 284-foot tank barge New Dawn, part of a four-barge tow pushed by the tugboat The Chief, ran aground on mud in the Columbia River at Hood River, Ore. It was carrying a full load of gasoline. The other three barges remained afloat and were removed, while the New Dawn was freed undamaged the next day after part of the cargo was transferred to another barge. Tidewater Transportation said the barge was in the shipping channel and had gone aground on an uncharted sandbar that had formed at the mouth of the Hood River.

7/9/09 Aaron Sigmund, 38, died when he was crushed by the counterweight of the flap valve on the suction line on board the Canadian dredge Sceptre Columbia. The dredge was on the Fraser River near Fraser Surrey Docks in the Port of Vancouver.

In This Issue

Up Front

News, Trends & Analysis
New Items

The outlook is improving

Supply Chain
Federal chassis rules: Are you ready?

Working with the public sector

How will your company deal with Sarbanes-Oxley

Features
Gateway at a glance Southern California

Six case studies in green

Ports & infrastructure
Nowhere near a Peak Season this year

Port Products
Green port product review

Commentary
Sustainable: The new buzz word

On the Horizon
Expect to see more LNG fuel stations in the future

Casualties