Queen of the North report delayed

The Transportation Safety Boards much anticipated report into the sinking of the Queen of the North, will be anticipated a little bit longer.

The federal agency has delayed the release of its report after one of the reviewers on an undisclosed list submitted a number of questions about the findings. As is the procedure those questions must be addressed in written form before the report can be made public.

The $600,000 report, which is now over a year in the making has been the one piece of the puzzle that all of the participants into the investigation have been patiently waiting for. It is hoped that it will help to clear up some of the questions as to what happened off Gil Island that night.

It is hoped that the report will be made public by the end of June.

While we wait for the report, the inevitable leaks are starting to come out from it, the CBC, quoting a lawyer representing one of the recently fired workers, is reporting that a major system error on the ferry was identified as a major cause as well.

Both stories can be found below.

Federal report on sinking of B.C. ferry Queen of the North delayed
Canadian Press
Monday, May 07, 2007

VICTORIA (CP) - A federal report into the sinking of B.C. Ferries' Queen of the North last year has been delayed.

The Transportation Safety Board spent more than $600,000 investigating the loss of the 37-year-old ferry, which left two people missing after striking an island south of Prince Rupert. The board investigators sent a draft of their findings to an undisclosed list of reviewers several weeks ago.

TSB spokesman John Cottreau says one of those parties has been granted a 30-day extension to respond to facts in the draft.

Cottreau can not say when the final Queen of the North report will be released to the public.

The board must reply to each of the draft reviewer's comments in writing, those comments and responses will then be assessed by staff and a redrafted report will go to the board for approval.

It's now likely the final report will not be released before the end of June.

© The Canadian Press 2007

Equipment also a factor in ferry sinking: lawyer
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 8, 2007 11:48 AM PT
CBC News

A federal report shows the Queen of the North's crew members were not solely at fault for the ferry's sinking in March 2006, says the Vancouver lawyer representing one of the workers fired last month.

A recent BC Ferries report on the sinking, which claimed two lives, blamed the tragedy on human error. But Glenn Orris says the upcoming Transportation Safety Board report on the sinking said a system failure was a major cause.

"I don't think anybody doubts that there was human error, but it was in combination with other things that were happening at the same time. It wasn't completely as the ferry corporation said —human error," he says.

"There were other problems within the ferry itself, within the equipment and the system that the ferry used."

Three crew members who were on bridge duty when the ferry struck Gil Island were terminated two weeks ago as a direct result of the corporation's internal inquiry, officials said.
The report concluded the three, on duty the night of the sinking, had failed to follow proper operating procedures.

Two of the three refused to answer ferry corporation questions about the accident and the 14-minute period immediately before the ship hit the rocks.

However, they did answer the investigation by the Transportation Safety Board. And their union says BC Ferries should at least have waited until that report was completed before taking any action.

The B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers Union has vowed to fight the firings.