BC Ferries to head to court over Queen of the North hard drive

The latest twist in the torturous path towards closure on the Queen of the North tragedy will be played out in a court room. CKNW radio in Vancouver was the first to report that the Ferry Corporation is taking the Transportation Safety Board to court in order to gain access to a computer hard drive from the vessels chart system, which was recovered by the TSB last year.

The ferry corporation claims that it requires the information from that hard drive so that it can provide a response to the board’s draft report on the tragedy. The confidential draft has been making the rounds of the various stakeholders, who all have the right of response, but according to a Canadian Press story today; the Ferry Corporation claims that the Transportation Safety Board has refused to provide the computer drive for examination by the Ferry Corporation.

The court action could lead to a delay in the release of the final draft, originally the plan was to have a final determination released to the public by this summer, but now with more acrimony on the horizon between the participants in the investigation it could be longer before we get a definitive word on what took place off of Gil Island that night in March.

B.C. Ferries sues TSB over ferry-sinking report
Canadian Press
May 24, 2007 at 10:07 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — B.C. Ferries is taking the federal Transportation Safety Board to court over access to a key piece of hardware from its sunken Queen of the North, radio station CKNW reports.

The legal tussle could delay the release of the board's final report into the sinking of the northern ferry last year, which claimed two lives.

According to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the Crown-owned ferry company wants the agency to turn over the computer hard drive from the ship's electronic chart system, which was recovered from the wreck last June.

The system recorded the final movements of the vessel and is key to determining whether or not the bridge crew made any effort to alter course before the ferry ran aground on March 22, 2006.

The ship with 101 passengers and crew struck Gil Island in Wright Sound a few hours after leaving the north-coast port of Prince Rupert.

It sank in less than two hours and two passengers remain missing and presumed drowned.

In its court filing, B.C. Ferries says it needs to analyze the data from the system in order to respond to the board's draft report into the accident.

The confidential draft has been circulating among the interested parties for several weeks and the final report was expected to be made public this summer.

The ferry company says in its filing that the safety board refuses to co-operate with its request.
It is asking the court to order the hard drive returned and to order the agency not to release its final report until then.

A spokeswoman for B.C. Ferries refused to comment on the court action Thursday, saying only chief executive officer David Hahn could discuss it and he was unavailable.

After completing its own investigation, B.C. Ferries earlier this month fired the three bridge crew members who on watch the night the ship ran aground.

Their union said it will challenge the dismissals.

The crew members and the ferry company are also named in lawsuits filed by the relatives of the two missing passengers and in a class action by other passengers who lost vehicles and belongings in the sinking.