An Offshore Heavy Transport ship came into port too quickly, leading to a crash causing millions in damage to a US Navy warship, safety investigators have determined.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a report Tuesday that the 64,900-dwt Hawk (built 1989) was travelling too fast as it neared the Huntington Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi 29 March 2019 before colliding with a docked barge and the USS Delbert D Black.
The Hawk, carrying a floating drydock built in China, had three local port pilots on board when the collision happened and was being escorted by four tugs.
"As the Hawk approached the entrance to the Pascagoula River, the master warned the pilots that the vessel was slow in reducing speed and recommended reducing speed earlier," the NTSB report read.
"However, pilot 1 was reluctant to reduce the vessel's engine speed over concerns that he would have less rudder control and that the vessel would be set down onto the port side of the channel.
"The pilot instead opted to use the tugboats made up to the stern to slow the Hawk, eventually ordering back full on both tugboats."
According to lawsuits filed in southern Mississippi federal court in the crash's aftermath, Huntington Ingalls suffered estimated damages of more than $30m, including delays and disruptions. The USS Delbert D Black, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer under construction at the shipyard, was estimated at $30.9m.
In December, insurance companies for Huntington Ingalls have filed claims and third-party complaints in the case, including against five Signet Maritime tugboats and the three port pilots, Walter Warren Gautier, Daniel E Whyte and Michale Charles Torjusen.
The trio were not named in the NTSB report, only referred to as pilots 1, 2 and 3.
No comment was available from Offshore Heavy Transport.
