Ship’s Master Blames Pilot for Blowing Horn

The blaring ship’s horn that warned Christmas shoppers a runaway freighter was about to smash into a crowded waterfront mall may have itself contributed to the accident, a board of inquiry was told Wednesday.

The Chinese master of the freighter, Jing Quan Deng, testified that his crew was unable to hear his first radioed orders to drop anchor in the middle of the river because the ship’s pilot was blowing the emergency horn.

Deng said he then tried leaving his post on the bridge and getting the attention of the man at the anchor through “body movements,” but again failed.

When they finally established communication, Deng said, dropping anchor would have swung the freighter into a cruise ship docked nearby. So, he said, he held the anchor, but as the freighter bore down on a casino boat, he dropped it to stop the forward motion.

In doing so, he overruled the ship’s river pilot, who had ordered the anchors dropped immediately, Deng testified.

The testimony came on the second day of a Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board hearing into Saturday’s accident in which the 763-foot Bright Field, loaded with 56,000 tons of corn, lost power and crashed into the Riverwalk mall near the French Quarter, injuring 116 people.

Ted Davisson, the river pilot who had boarded the ship three hours earlier to guide it down the treacherous Mississippi River, testified Tuesday that the master and his crew showed no signs of responding to his commands.

Pilots are required to be aboard to navigate on the Mississippi, but the ship’s master remains in command.

Deng, disputing Davisson’s account of the harrowing three minutes between power loss and the crash, said he responded to Davisson and followed his orders, with the exception of the timing of the anchor.

Deng said he followed Davisson’s orders to put the rudder hard right, lower anchor and rev the engines to full speed astern.

Among other things, the inquiry is looking into whether a language barrier played a role.

Deng testified through an interpreter, but did not have an interpreter at the time of the accident. During the hearing, he showed he understood some English.