Documents
  • U.S. District Court complaint against Cosco Busan pilot (PDF)
  • Coast Guard report on Cosco Busan oil spill cleanup (PDF)
  • United States of America v. Cosco Busan
  • Request for authorization for execution of in REM process of Arrest to be held temporarily In abeyance
Slideshows
  • Spill reaches Pt. Reyes
  • More pictures from the scene
Videos
  • Birds returned back to nature
  • Rescuing oiled wildlife
  • Pelosi Visits Spill Damage in San Francisco
  • On the Web: The ship's course on the bay
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WASHINGTON - A newly released transcript of the voice data recorder on board the freighter that spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay last fall shows the pilot and the crew struggling in English and Chinese to see through the fog and read the navigational devices in the moment before the crash.

As they prepared to depart, the pilot of the freighter, Captain John Cota, is heard saying that "I've tried to target five times, never plots. That's not good for fog."

Cota declined to testify under subpoena at a National Transportation Safety Board hearing that got under way today.

Visibility was very poor the morning of Nov. 7, when the Cosco Busan sideswiped a portion of the Bay Bridge.

A crew member says in Chinese "for American ships under such conditions, they would not be under way."

As the moment of the collision approaches, the chief officer says in Chinese, "the bridge column, the bridge column."

A moment later the chief officer says in Chinese: "There is a leak. There is a leak."

Then, in English, Cota says: "Is the ship all right? Is the ship all right?"

Another ship officer, who also declined to testify Tuesday, replies: "No. No. It's leaking."

As the hearing began NTSB officials said that the ship's electronic charts did not fully comply with international standards.

After the crash, Cota, said, "You said this was the center of the bridge."

"Yes," the other officer responded.

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Cota says, "No, this is the center. That's the tower. This is the tower. That's why we hit it. I thought that was the center."