Looking back on the night of March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez left port, it seemed as though the ship had only lasted as long as it had by running on luck and hope. With the company trying to save money and the crew working on fumes, things were headed down a dark path. One of the wonderful things about being human is our ability to look back on events that have occurred and learn from them. Unfortunately for Exxon, it took a catastrophic accident like this one to show how operations could be improved and how to be better prepared for the unexpected. These events are broken down to shed light on what made the Exxon Valdez accident a mess from port departure to today. Upon leaving any port, large cargo and cruise ships are under control …show more content…
After giving this order, the Captain then handed over control of the ship to his Third Mate, Gregory Cousins. At this time, Cousins was told that upon reaching a certain point he was to have the ship reenter its previous, safer, shipping lane. Prior to reaching this point, Harry Claar was relieved of his duties by fellow Helmsman Robert Kagan, who would be in control of the ship until its ill-fated destiny. For reasons unknown to this day, the order was never followed and the ship never returned to its appropriate shipping lanes and at 12:04 a.m., less than 3 hours after leaving port the Exxon Valdez would run aground on Bligh Reef. As with any major event as soon as the Valdez incident occurred people began to search for an explanation and blame had to be placed on someone. Once the ship had hit ground a call was made to Valdez Vessel Traffic Center and information about the accident began to come to light. At the time of impact, Capt. Hazelwood was not in the wheelhouse overseeing what might be considered one of the more crucial points of any ships journey, navigating the ice filled narrows; he was instead in his bunk sleeping off a night of drinking. According to some sources, on the night of the incident Captain Hazelwood was seen in multiple bars drinking and may have had as many as 6 double shots of vodka at the bars. During questioning after the grounding Hazelwood said that he was not affected by the amount of alcohol he had
Captain Edward Smith stayed on the boat while it was sinking. He was an English naval reserve officer. He
One of the men lost to the repair crew was Shipfitter 3/c Sylvester A. Fortin Jr. Sylvester sustained multiple wounds in the initial explosion and died later that day.
The Edmund fitzgerald was a boat used for hauling iron ore, she set and broke her own record multiple times. On Novemeber 9 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald was on route to a steel mill near Detroit. They ran into a huge storm, with hurricane force winds and 30 plus foot waves. That very night the ship sank in Canadian waters more than 500 feet deep to the bottom of Lake Superior. The last message the captain sent back to mainland was that they were holding their own and everything was okay. No known cause of the ship sinking has been found but people think that the ship got covered in water from the waves and were unable to stay afloat. There was a crew of 29 people and none of the bodies have ever been recovered.
From his pilot seat , Lt. Donald Kilpatrick, turned and asked the navigator if the plane was on fire. Once he received the response to his question, Lt. Kilpatrick gave his last order to the crew…“Bail Out”.
Once the ship was right side up, Engineer Shellgren put the engines hard astern, allowing the steamer to escape. In the harbor, Captain Chance Wiman alerted the approaching Calista and returned to Seattle.
accident started the problems faced by the crew members. They then changed their course and
The four crew members included First Officer Jeff Skiles, flight attendants, Sheila Dail, Donna Dent, and Doreen Welsh. Ninety-five seconds into the flight, Sully saw the birds. They were about a football field away and the plane was flying extremely fast, so they were on top of them before they could blink. Later, they learned the birds were Canadian geese (Dodd and Boudin). Sully immediately knew that the birds hit the engines. Both of the engines lost thrust. Within eight seconds of the strike, Sully knew this was the worst aviation challenge he has ever faced. Sully took over the controls and lowered the nose. He then radioed Patrick Harten, the flight controller. Harten wanted them to land at an airport at either LaGuardia or Teeterboro. Sully said they might end up in the Hudson (Sully). “This is the captain. Brace for impact!” announced Sully. “Brace, brace! Heads down! Stay down!” stated Sheila, Doreen, and Donna. The automated ground proximity warning would not stop saying “Caution, terrain.” It was about three minutes from the bird strike and he was preparing to land on the Hudson River. Sully did everything right. He made sure the wings were level. The nose of the plane was slightly tilted up. The front of the plane hit the water much softer than the back of the plane. They
How did this terrible accident happen? On March 23,1989,the ship departed from the Trans Alaska Pipeline at 9:12 pm. William Murphy was hired to maneuver the 986 foot vessel through Valdez Narrows was in control first. At the time the captain Joe Hazelwood, and Helmsman, Henry Clear, who was steering, were at his side Then captain Hazelwood took over, and pilot Murphy left the vessel. During this time they encountered icebergs in the shipping lanes and the captain then ordered Claar to go around the icebergs, which was out of the shipping lanes. After that the wheel was handed over to third mate Gregory Cousins who was told to turn back into the shipping lanes when the tanker reached a certain point. the Claar handed the wheel over to Helmsman Robert Kagan, for an
Lane, Marcus, Helen Ross, and Allan Dale. "Social Impact Research: Integrating the Technical, Political, and Planning Paradigms." Human organization 56, no. 3 (1997): 302-310.
My husband made an acquaintance on board. His name is John Howland. He was almost swept off the deck of the ship in
A starboard-side collision make it look like the Fitzgerald was at fault. Vessels should give way to ships on their starboard side that is one of the general maritime rules. Experts said that the details will be complicated in real-world situations. The U.S. Fleet commander Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin failed to speculate during a press conference that was held in
Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster- (Argumentative Essay) Were you aware that when the Deepwater Horizon disaster happened it took 36 hours for it to fully submerge, and when the fish died because of all the oil fishermen could not make a living and support their family because they could not do their job and earn money? During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20, 2010, there were two major players at blame, BP, and TransOcean. The Disaster occurred because TransOcean, the drilling company did not take care of the B.O.P. (Blow Out Preventer) and because they had a broken E.D.S. Panel (Emergency Disconnect System). So what happened was that TransOcean had nothing under control and because of that there was chaos and many lives had been
The costs of the spill ended up being much higher than they had to have been. The Exxon Valdez supertanker caused the environment of Alaska to be completely contaminated by oil. This created a decline in tourism in the state of Alaska for several years. In relation this caused a decline in consumer goods being sold. The lack of visitors to Alaska also created a decline in other services, such as restaurants and other attractions. Because there was no income flow of money, the state noticed a decline in its economy. Because of this, Alaska relied more on the government for support for things such as improving the quality of public buildings such as schools and businesses, and food. This event caused Alaska to be less independent as a state,
the port, it ran aground on Bligh reef. The bottom was ripped open, and 10.9
Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).