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Series of Errors on Tanker Led to Spill, Panel Is Told

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Times Staff Writer

As the Exxon Valdez approached a hazardous midnight passage between rock reefs and floating icebergs in Prince William Sound, a series of errors aboard the supertanker began compounding, leading to the worst oil spill in U.S. history, a federal board of inquiry was told Tuesday.

Not only was the captain away from the bridge, there was no lookout stationed on the bow, the depth alarm was not working and the ship was increasing--rather than reducing--speed. At times the ship was on automatic pilot, a condition normally reserved for operations in the open sea.

The disclosures came on the opening day of a five-day hearing by the National Transportation Safety Board on the causes and immediate aftermath of the March 24 tanker grounding, which spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sound.

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The hearing also focused on a mystery: Did the ship’s crew fail to realize trouble lay ahead, or did the ship somehow not respond to its frantic efforts to avoid Bligh Reef?

The ship’s third mate, Gregory T. Cousins, told the panel that Capt. Joseph Hazelwood left the bridge to do some paper work in his cabin after first ordering the tanker outside normal traffic lanes to avoid floating ice. According to Cousins’ testimony, Hazelwood asked if the third mate was comfortable handling the responsibility.

Cousins, unlicensed to operate the vessel in the sound, said “yes, I was.”

According to reports filed by NTSB investigators Tuesday, Hazelwood made a series of decisions before leaving the bridge, however. He ordered the lookout stationed on the bow to take a position on the bridge wing, 800 feet from the bow. And he told Cousins to steer back into the traffic lanes just beyond Busby Island, where a buoy light warns of dangerous shoals.

Seven minutes before the accident, just after passing Busby Island, Cousins said he ordered a right rudder correction of 10 degrees. Two minutes later, detecting no response, he said he made a more insistent 20-degree right rudder correction.

Five-Minute Delay

But the ship’s mechanical course recorder said no course change began until five minutes after Cousins said he issued his first order.

“I honestly cannot pinpoint the reason” for the discrepancy, Cousins said.

As the ship steamed at 11 knots toward the reef, Cousins said he called Hazelwood in his cabin.

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“I said to him, ‘I think we’re in serious trouble,’ ” Cousins said. Then the 987-foot tanker hit the reef.

Cousins said in a panic that he grabbed the wheel and spun it left but by that time, “I believe we were hard aground.”

Cousins said he shined a light on the water but could not see oil because it was too dark. But he said he could smell oil.

Telling his story for the first time to an intent crowd in a downtown hotel ballroom, the Tampa, Fla., seaman said that after the first hit there was another jolt every 10 seconds for a minute, six jolts in all.

Hazelwood returned to the bridge and spent about 20 minutes trying to rock the ship free. He called the Coast Guard at 12:26. At 12:35, he made another futile 12-minute attempt to free the tanker--actions that authorities believe might have further jeopardized the ship’s already precarious position.

Hazelwood, fired from Exxon and facing state criminal charges of drunk driving, reckless endangerment and negligent discharge of oil, refused to testify at the hearing.

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Hazelwood, who is free on $50,000 bail, goes on trial June 20. He has pleaded innocent to the charges. He faces two years, three months in jail and $11,000 in fines if convicted.

Cousins said he smelled no alcohol on Hazelwood’s breath. The captain failed a blood alcohol test 10 hours later and investigators said Hazelwood was drinking before sailing his tanker out of Valdez.

However, Exxon Chairman Lawrence Rawl told United Press International on Tuesday that company interviews indicate Hazelwood was not drunk prior to the spill.

Attorney’s View

Hazelwood’s attorney, Michael Chalos, said Tuesday that the testimony showed “an accident happened and it was the fault of the third mate and the helmsman. You can talk about the captain’s judgment, but it doesn’t rise to a crime.”

In a dozen trips on Exxon vessels out of Valdez, Cousins said, he had not seen “growlers,” small icebergs, worse than on the night the ship left port, but he said he saw them only on radar.

Cousins said he was surprised to find the tanker on automatic pilot when he took over because autopilot was used in open water and not during maneuvers, such as the detour away from ice. He said he did not know who put the ship on autopilot but that he took it off before trying to make critical turns prior to running aground.

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Cousins also testified that at no time while the ship was lunging into shallow water did the alarm on the ship’s fathometer sound.

Cousins said the distance between the ice and Bligh Reef was nine-tenths of a mile. The Exxon Valdez was heading east, toward lighted and charted reefs and islands, when he ordered the series of right turns.

NTSB questioning focused on ice conditions, tanker-turning capabilities and crew decision-making.

The panel is trying to determine why the tanker strayed far from the shipping lane on a clear night, whether Hazelwood was drunk and why Cousins was in command.

28 Witnesses Scheduled

The panel will question more than two dozen witnesses, including Coast Guard personnel and Exxon executives, and try to determine whether the Coast Guard, the oil industry and the state reacted as promptly as possible to the spill.

The inquiry is scheduled to hear 28 witnesses, including eight Exxon crewmen, representatives from the state, Exxon, the Coast Guard and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a consortium of oil companies that runs the 800-mile Alaskan pipeline.

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The board’s report on the cause of the accident will take up to a year to complete, NTSB spokeswoman Drucella Andersen said.

Cousins’ testimony, delivered in a monotone, seemed to take on an air of despair when he revealed that he was not supposed to be on duty when the ship ran into trouble. Cousins reported telling his replacement, the second mate, to take his time coming up to bridge to start his shift because he, Cousins, was feeling fine.

OIL DRILLING DELAYED--The Interior Department postpones a proposed offshore oil lease sale in Alaska. Page 17

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