Ferry corporation said to have fired Queen of the North crew members

The Globe and Mail, CBC and other media sites in Canada are reporting this weekend, that three of the crew members on duty the night that the Queen of the North sunk have been terminated from their employment with the Ferry Corporation.

The move comes after an internal BC Ferries report into the sinking found that the three, second officer Keven Hilton, fourth officer Karl Lilgert and quartermaster Karen Bricker, failed to follow the normal operating procedures. The BC Ferry Workers and Marine Workers Union has the right to appeal the firings, but has given no indication yet as to what they plan to do in response to the terminations.

The next significant development in the sinking could be the RCMP report into the events of that night, a report that is expected to provide some of the details and hopefully some of the answers as to what caused the Queen of the North to run into Gil Island and sink to the bottom of the waters of Wright sound.