Almost a year after the Cosco Busan left it’s deadly wake of oil spilled on San Francisco Bay, the pilot’s captain in charge of the ship has been ruled at fault. Capt. John Cota “failed to exercise sound judgment,” the pilot commission ruled in a report released this week. Cota has already given up his … Read more
Another legal slap, this one serious, has been handed down to the Cosco Busan pilot who was in charge of navigating the container ship that struck the Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of oil. Today a federal grand jury added two felony counts of lying to the Coast Guard to an earlier indictment. The … Read more
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing looking into the Cosco Busan oil spill, shed more light on the personal problems of the pilot captain that may have contributed to the disaster on San Francisco Bay. The NTSB revealed that Capt. John Cota is an alcoholic who also was using prescription drugs during work hours … Read more
John Cota, the pilot entrusted with navigating the container ship that struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of criminal negligence and violating environmental laws. The 901-foot Cosco Busan ship side-swipped the bridge in November 2007 and spilled more than 50,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay. The corresponding … Read more