Skipper accused of negligence in oil spill

<p>The Petaluma man who guided the 900-foot Cosco Busan through San Francisco Bay is responsible for striking the Bay Bridge on Nov. 7 because he didn’t follow safe navigation procedures, a state board has alleged.</p><p>In a formal accusation against Cota, the Board of Pilot Commissioners for San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun bays says the veteran bar pilot should have known better than to set sail in foggy conditions with unfamiliar equipment and a radar system that was already causing concern.</p><p>Furthermore, the ship was moving too fast for the weather conditions and a lookout on board hadn’t been told how to recognize the lights and fog horns of the bridge looming up ahead — also Cota’s fault, the board said.</p><p>“As a direct result of Captain Cota’s piloting, the vessel struck the fendering system surrounding the Delta Tower” of the Bay Bridge, said the Dec. 6 report, which calls for the suspension or revocation of Cota’s pilot license.</p><p>Cota, the husband of Petaluma City Councilmem-ber Teresa Barrett, now has until Dec. 21 to request a hearing on the matter. He has already been taken off duty by the San Francisco Bar Pilots, pending the state board’s determination.</p><p>A 26-year veteran of the group of navigation specialists, Cota’s job aboard the Cosco Busan Nov. 7 was to guide the Hong Kong-owned ship out of the Port of Oakland and out to sea.</p><p>Bar pilots are trained as local experts in bay navigation, who board foreign ships to provide directions to the captain. As such an expert, Cota was negligent in his duties and displayed “misconduct” aboard the Cosco Busan, the state board charged.</p><p>“At the time of departure, he had reason to doubt whether the ship could proceed safely and he had insufficient information about the level of visibility along his intended route,” the report said.</p><p>Since he was unfamiliar with the ship’s electronic chart system and its markings, and also had concerns about the operation of the radar systems before departing, Cota should have followed harbor safety guidelines that lay out what factors need to be considered before moving a vessel, the report said.</p><p>With visibility along the approach to the bridge limited to 0.1 nautical miles, the ship was moving at half speed, about 11 knots, when the ship’s radar pictures “deteriorated to the point that Captain Cota lost confidence in them, and he lost situational awareness to accurately assess the vessel’s position,” said the report.</p><p>After seven minutes traveling at half speed, Cota ordered the ship to full speed. Less than three minutes later, the ship struck the bridge tower, according to the report.</p><p>Cota’s attorney, John Meadows, did not return a call for comment on the report, and indicated in other published reports this week that he will not make a statement while the matter of his client’s pilot license is pending.</p><p>The state’s report further criticized Cota for not making “full use of all available resources,” including a tugboat that traveled alongside the container ship, as well as the Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Service — “which could have provided more information as to his position and heading if he had requested it,” the report said.</p><p>The Coast Guard had radioed Cota minutes before the ship struck the bridge, asking about his intentions. He radioed back that he intended to sail between the “Delta” and “Echo” towers of the bridge.</p><p>The Coast Guard has been criticized for not doing more to warn Cota about his course, but the agency said VTS officials are trained not to distract navigators with queries during what are perceived as critical maneuvers.</p><p>The impact of the ship with the tower tore a 200-foot-long gash in the hull, from which 58,000 gallons of oil spilled — causing beaches to close and killing thousands of sea birds.</p><p>The cost of the environmental damage is still being tabulated, but lawsuits against the owners and operators of the Cosco Busan, as well as Cota, have already been filed.</p><p>Following a federal civil suit filed two weeks ago and a now-settled lawsuit by crab fishermen, the city of San Francisco named Cota as a defendant in a San Francisco Superior Court suit Monday.</p><p>“This was a wholly avoidable accident that has caused more injury to the San Francisco Bay Area than we can yet begin to fathom,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>