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Post by kylefossett on Apr 8, 2008 17:03:01 GMT -8
Searching for a link right now to the story so I can post it here. Saw story on Global BC News Hour. BC Ferries had a near miss involving one of the Spirits and a Seaspan vessel on March 17th 2008 at approximately 2140hrs. Apparently it was at the entrance to Active Pass and the vessels came within 200yds of each other. It was mentioned on Global that BC Ferries has a policy that they do not pass other vessels at the entrances to the pass. The on duty captain has been released from his contract. He was a retired capatain who had been hired back on a contract basis. www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=7847ab4b-e160-4759-963b-a69745b1c7ec&k=11396 |
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Post by Dane on Apr 8, 2008 19:32:32 GMT -8
BC Ferries fires captain after freighter near-missUpdated Tue. Apr. 8 2008 10:26 PM ET The Canadian Press VANCOUVER -- BC Ferries has fired one of its captains after a ferry en route to Victoria had a close call with a freighter last month. BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says the Spirit of British Columbia came within 180 metres of a vessel at the narrow entrance to Active Pass between Mayne Island and Gabriola Island on March 17. She says the two vessels had been in contact and planned to pass each other outside the pass on the west side of the Strait of Georgia but they miscalculated their speed. Marshall says the incident violated BC Ferries policy that allows passing only inside the long, straight stretch of Active Pass or outside the pass. She says BC Ferries conducted an internal review of what they're terming a near miss and fired the unidentified captain, who had come back from retirement to work on contract as a relief captain. Marshall says BC Ferries has also reported the incident to Transport Canada although it did not violate any federal regulations. www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080408/bc_ferries_080408/20080408?hub=Canadacnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/04/08/5231376-cp.html
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Post by Balfour on Apr 8, 2008 19:49:47 GMT -8
BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says the Spirit of British Columbia came within 180 metres of a vessel at the narrow entrance to Active Pass between Mayne Island and Gabriola Island on March 17. It seems the media got a bit confused. Since when did Gabriola and Galiano Island switch spots? |
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Post by Dane on Apr 8, 2008 19:57:01 GMT -8
BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says the Spirit of British Columbia came within 180 metres of a vessel at the narrow entrance to Active Pass between Mayne Island and Gabriola Island on March 17. It seems the media got a bit confused. Since when did Gabriola and Galiano Island switch spots? LOL, I missed that. Doesn't seem like this is a huge deal, but at least BC Ferries won't get bad PR for not acting this go-around. Let's hope that there isn't a lot of criticism about the formerly retired Captain being brought back on, a very common practise in many industries. |
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Post by doctorcad on Apr 9, 2008 9:06:15 GMT -8
It would have been fun to be on that sailing... I wonder if the other vessel was one of the Seaspan Coastal Intermodal vessels, or the MV Thorseggen:  |
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Post by queenofcowichan on Apr 9, 2008 11:49:03 GMT -8
NO, its probably the Seaspan Doris the Spirit of BC was passing. I know the Seaspan ferries use Active pass around that time. besides I am under the understanding that after the Queen of Victoria incident in 1970 Frieghters are not permitted to use Active Pass, They use Boundary Pass. Just the other day the deep Sea ship Skaugran which I did see off Rathtrevor sailed down to Boundary Pass to make her way to Crofton. If you are interested I am currently (12:52pm) uploading the News report on last Nights Global late News to my Youtube site, feel free to watch. www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Novabus9228 |
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Post by piller on Apr 9, 2008 18:10:53 GMT -8
This isn't the first incident that BC Ferries has had in Active Pass. On August 2, 1970 the QofVictoria collided with the Russian freighter Sergey Yesinin. I believe 3 people were killed in that incident. On August 9, 1979, the Q of Alberni ran aground on Collinsen Reef in the western part of Active Pass. 1 horse died in that incidient
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Post by queenofcowichan on Apr 9, 2008 18:21:35 GMT -8
One of Today's papers I think it was the TC mentioned that the Seaspan Vessle had Commercial vehicles aboard so this confirms it was one of the Seaspan Truck ferries.  |
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Post by PK on Apr 9, 2008 18:48:30 GMT -8
It was the Seaspan Doris. She is a railcar ferry, but carries commerical trailers mostly.
The area where the two vessels met is where the Sergi Yessin
collided with the Queen of Victoria in 1970.
Next time you're on the Spirit ferries, go forward while transiting Active Pass (except on a typical Coast wet day) and see just how narrow the passage is for big ferries, if you haven't already done so.
That was a close one, 50 feet to 100 either side and the Spirit of
BC would have crunched on the rocks.
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Post by Scott on Apr 9, 2008 21:48:46 GMT -8
Is passing 200 yards a "near miss"? I can understand the danger of passing in that section of the Pass, but isn't the media going a bit far in calling it a "near miss"?
And what was BC Ferries' motivation in releasing this story? It wasn't something that had to be reported to the TSB. No one was injured and there was no damage. Probably no one on board noticed other than a few officers. Did they release the story just to tell everyone "we're taking action on safety and this proves it.."? Is this captain being used as a scapegoat so BC Ferries can get some "good" press? This just seems like a strange story to me. Anyone else? Or am I way off base?
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Quatchi
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Engineering Officer - CCG
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Post by Quatchi on Apr 9, 2008 22:10:22 GMT -8
I agree John. It might be blown out of proportion a bit. Just look how close the fishing boats at Tsawwassen get to the ferry's while turning around. Also how close to shore the spirits get when they approach Swartz Bay by the east route.
I am thinking that BCF took advantage of the fact that the Master was a retiree coming back on contract work and scored some PR points.
Cheers,
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Post by Hardy on Apr 10, 2008 1:05:23 GMT -8
I don't particularly see it as 'scapegoating'. As far as the seriousness of the incident, it does not have to do with the fact that it was within 200m of each other (although for larger vessels, 200m does not give you a lot of 'wiggle' room, in case you are not passing each other DEAD parallel!), but rather the fact that it violated a BCFS policy of minimum separation in Active Pass AND[/u] a violation of not passing another vessel in the approaches/exits to AP.
Going by the news stories (and taking some of all of them into account to sort out the truth), it appears that there was an error in communication between the BCFS vessel and the Seaspan vessel insofar as both vessel's speeds and closing rates; end result, they passed each other in close proximity in a "no-go" zone. Don't really know which one of the two vessels should have been the 'quarterback' calling this play, but by the fact that the BCFS captain has been disciplined (fired), I would assume that it was his responsibility to make the arrangements for a safe passing of the Seaspan vessel.
Again, I don't think it was so much the actual separation, so much as the location, and the fact that it violated a written BCFS policy for transitting AP.
Was BCFS right to discpline it's captain? Absolutely. Did it warrant a firing? Probably not. Will the union grieve the dismissal? Possibly - tricky spot though, seeing it was a previously retired captain brought back, as the news articles state "under contract". It will be all about the wording of that contract to see whether the union has a leg to stand on, plus, whether or not the individual involved wishes the union to pursue the matter on his/her behalf (although some unions pursue all dismissals whether or not the individual dismissed wants them to or not).
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D'Elete BC in NJ
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Post by D'Elete BC in NJ on Apr 10, 2008 3:47:00 GMT -8
Is passing 200 yards a "near miss"? I can understand the danger of passing in that section of the Pass, but isn't the media going a bit far in calling it a "near miss"? And what was BC Ferries' motivation in releasing this story? It wasn't something that had to be reported to the TSB. No one was injured and there was no damage. Probably no one on board noticed other than a few officers. Did they release the story just to tell everyone "we're taking action on safety and this proves it.."? Is this captain being used as a scapegoat so BC Ferries can get some "good" press? This just seems like a strange story to me. Anyone else? Or am I way off base? I think BCFS's motive is clear...they want to be able to justify the firing of the captain, instead of just disciplining him. How better to do that; an overblown story in the media so the public doesn't cry foul. Also, it makes them look proactive on the safety front, something, in public opinion, they are probably still feeling heat for since the QotN. |
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Post by kylefossett on Apr 10, 2008 6:03:19 GMT -8
I am sorry but the captain went against policy, whether he meant to or realized is not the point. We are lucky that when this policy was breached that nobody was hurt. We all saw what happened when the bridge crew of the Queen of the North broke policy. A plicy is there for a reason, in this case for the safety of the passengers, crew, and vessel. BC Ferries was right to fire this captain.
In regards to BC Ferries releasing this to the media, they may not have released it. The media may have caught wind of it when it went to the TSB and followed up.
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D'Elete BC in NJ
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Post by D'Elete BC in NJ on Apr 10, 2008 8:21:59 GMT -8
Oh, don't take what I said as implying BCFS was in the wrong...you're right, the captain made a serious error that may or may not have deserved dismissal...I merely suggesting that BCFS is taking a proactive approach to this situation in order to encourage the public that BCFS is now much more responsible with their safety protocol. I do feel they are a little liberal with the colour that they add to their end of things, but, that's why they have media spin experts....  |
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Kam
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Post by Kam on Apr 10, 2008 11:39:34 GMT -8
I am sorry but the captain went against policy, whether he meant to or realized is not the point. We are lucky that when this policy was breached that nobody was hurt. We all saw what happened when the bridge crew of the Queen of the North broke policy. A plicy is there for a reason, in this case for the safety of the passengers, crew, and vessel. BC Ferries was right to fire this captain. In regards to BC Ferries releasing this to the media, they may not have released it. The media may have caught wind of it when it went to the TSB and followed up. I agree. 200 meters is a very small distance while executing a turn in tidal waters and confined spaces. It doesn’t take much to eat up that kind of space while manoeuvring at speed. The part I just don’t get is if the ships where in communications, why would the Capitan enter the pass before the Seaspan ship exited?? The AIS display would have shown its position… something doesn’t add up. |
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Post by Alex on Apr 10, 2008 12:09:22 GMT -8
I agree. 200 meters is a very small distance while executing a turn in tidal waters and confined spaces. It doesn’t take much to eat up that kind of space while manoeuvring at speed. The part I just don’t get is if the ships where in communications, why would the Capitan enter the pass before the Seaspan ship exited?? The AIS display would have shown its position… something doesn’t add up. I was thinking the same thing. When a few of us went on the Queen of Saanich trip a few weeks back, the SOVI slowed down and waited for the SOBC to pass through that narrow section (the SOBC was late, I believe) before we moved on. It seems like this would be a common occurence. So yeah, what was so different about this time? |
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Post by Scott on Apr 10, 2008 16:20:03 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Apr 10, 2008 19:21:06 GMT -8
It sure looks to me as though the management at BCFS's is trying hard to convince the public that they take safety seriously. So they let the contract of a retired master lapse and forgot to tell him why?
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Post by Dane on Apr 12, 2008 15:41:44 GMT -8
Was BCFS right to discpline it's captain? Absolutely. Did it warrant a firing? Probably not. Will the union grieve the dismissal? Possibly - tricky spot though, seeing it was a previously retired captain brought back, as the news articles state "under contract". It will be all about the wording of that contract to see whether the union has a leg to stand on, plus, whether or not the individual involved wishes the union to pursue the matter on his/her behalf (although some unions pursue all dismissals whether or not the individual dismissed wants them to or not). He wouldn't be union if he was hired back on Contract. Union Captains were once very rare, but seem to be easier to find them now as many have the option to remain Union and turn down the final promotion to (substantive) Captain. |
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