Report: Officer’s mistake is likely to have caused a wreck off Georgia | WGN Radio 720

On Sunday, September 5, 2021, a crane towering over the wreckage of the wrecked freighter Golden Ray straddles the waters off St. Simons Island, Georgia. The Korean cargo ship capsized on September 8, 2019, shortly after leaving the port. Of Brunswick. Debris cleaning and other efforts are expected to take a few more months, but the task of removing most of the debris from the giant mass is nearing its end. (Brandswick News via Terry Dixon / AP)

Savannah, Georgia (AP) — A US survey suggests that a top officer’s error in calculating the stability of a cargo ship loaded with nearly 4,200 cars was likely to have overturned a giant ship along the Georgia coast. Officials said in a report on Tuesday.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has published a 57-page report on the overthrow of the South Korean cargo ship Golden Ray. The Golden Ray has been stripped from the water off St. Simons Island two years later.

The ship’s crew was successfully rescued after the wreck on September 8, 2019. However, the 656-foot (199-meter) ship was considered a total loss, as was the cargo of a new car. The NTSB reported a total loss of over $ 204 million.

The NTSB reiterated the findings of Coast Guard experts at last year’s hearing. The Golden Ray ballast tank was used to increase the weight of the bottom of the ship and did not have enough water to offset the weight of the vehicle on the upper cargo deck. .. The center of gravity of the ship on the left is too high.

Due to the instability of the Golden Ray, the Golden Ray tilted sharply during the starboard turn shortly after the ship departed Brunswick Port, about 70 miles (110 km) south of the savanna. The NTSB reported that the pilot’s door, which remained open on the lower deck, flooded the ship with water, blocking the escape route for some crew members who had to be rescued from the engine room later.

Investigators concluded that the unstable loading was most likely due to an error by the ship’s chief officer who reported directly to the captain. The report states that the chief officer was not properly trained to use the ship’s computer, which uses loading data to calculate the stability of the ship.

“The chief officer made a mistake in entering ballast tank-level data into the onboard stability calculation computer, which led to a misjudgment of ship stability,” the NTSB report said. increase.

As a result, Golden Ray left Brunswick Port and was short of 1,492 metric tonnes of ballast that would have been needed to meet international safety standards for stability, the report said.

According to the NTSB, G-Marine Service Co., the operator of the vessel and a subsidiary of South Korean-based shipping company Hyundai Glovis, has stepped up executive training on stability calculations since the overthrow of Golden Ray. bottom.

The dismantling of the Golden Ray began in November, and the crew used a towering crane to straddle the shipwreck. The crane winch and pulley system were mounted on a 400-foot (122-meter) anchor chain used to tear the hull like a blunt saw blade.

That method was used to cut the wreck into eight huge chunks. The work was slow and sometimes tedious. In May, a large fire swallowed the wreckage of the ship as workers made a cut in the hull using a torch. Then, in late July, oil squirted from the shipwreck, polluting about 2.5 miles (4 km) of beach and wetland grass.

About half of the shipwrecks were barged to a scrapyard in Louisiana. The hard work is over, but the rest of the cleanup work is expected to take several months. The cuts of a ship moored in Georgia need to be further disassembled before being carried away by a barge.

On the other hand, broken cars and other debris that fell while the shipwreck was detached must be caught from the water before removing the large mesh containment barrier that surrounds the site.

The NTSB is investigating collisions on highways, railroads, aircraft, and at sea, but has no regulatory authorities.

Report: Officer’s mistake is likely to have caused a wreck off Georgia | WGN Radio 720

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