Human Error by Coast Guard Cited in $18.9-Million Award

Families who alleged that the Coast Guard botched a rescue, which led to the deaths of four people in a sailboat accident, on Thursday were awarded $18.9 million from the federal government.

Michael Cornett, 49, of Hiltons, Va., and his sons, Paul, 16, and Daniel, 13, died when their sailboat Morning Dew ran into a Charleston Harbor jetty on a December night in 1997. Bobby Lee Hurd Jr., the boys’ 14-year-old cousin from Mountain City, Tenn., also died.

“This tragedy was avoidable,” U.S. District Judge David Norton wrote in his 64-page decision. “It was not an angry sea or cruel weather that impeded the Coast Guard’s ability to rescue the . . . Morning Dew’s passengers. It was human error, the impetuous termination of a search and rescue mission approximately 30 minutes before sunrise.”

Norton held a trial without a jury in August. He ruled that Cornett’s wife, Libby, should receive $6.3 million in damages for the loss of each of her children. Dee Dee Hurd and her husband, Bobby Lee Hurd Sr., were awarded the same amount for their son, Bobby.

The judge did not award any damages for the death of Michael Cornett, saying he likely was thrown overboard and drowned before he could have been rescued.

The families, alleging that the Coast Guard was negligent, had sought $35 million.

On a taped radio call, Daniel Cornett issued a mayday at 2:17 a.m. Dec. 29, 1997. A Coast Guard petty officer tried to return the call but got no reply. Later, the officer said he did not hear the word “mayday” in the call.

Around 6 a.m., a crewman on a freighter entering the harbor said he heard cries for help from the water. A pilot boat searched the area but found nothing.

The Coast Guard did not dispatch its own units until about 11 a.m.