Word: guard
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Coast Guard's commandant, Admiral Paul Yost Jr., has done little to clarify the pilotage issue. In June he declared in a speech at a federal maritime academy that Cousins was "fully qualified" to pilot the vessel. But in an interview with TIME, Yost hedged his statement by saying Cousins "was competent, but he was not technically qualified...
Another question is why the Coast Guard did not monitor the Valdez after it veered outside normal shipping lanes. Following the last radio transmission by Hazelwood, the Coast Guard did not communicate with the Valdez until after the grounding, nearly an hour later. Nor did it track the tanker by radar. The Coast Guard has cited possible weather conditions, poor equipment and the change-of-shift preoccupations of a watchman to explain why the ship was not picked up on radar. More important, although seamen insist they rely heavily on Coast Guard monitoring in the entire sound, Coast Guard officials...
Once the Valdez had run aground, however, the Coast Guard says it had no trouble spotting the stricken tanker on radar because it presented a wider profile and was standing higher in water. Many mariners dismiss the Coast Guard's explanation. "That's a ridiculous contention because any way you turn this vessel, it's as big as a building," says Michael Chalos, a maritime attorney who represents Hazelwood. "She has a beam of 166 ft. and a height from the waterline of about 75 ft. when fully loaded. The Coast Guard is trying to cover up for the fact...
...left to report? Nation editor Jack E. White figured there was. In the Los Angeles bureau, Brown pored over National Transportation Safety Board reports and testimony by tanker crew members and others to unravel the complex chain of events. Then he went back to Valdez to talk with Coast Guard investigators. Says Brown: "I found the web of culpability surrounding the accident was almost as sticky and far-reaching as the spill itself." Meanwhile, New York correspondent Behar, who wrote the story, interviewed Hazelwood's family, friends and neighbors in the captain's -- and his own -- hometown of Huntington, Long...
...ship's captain, Hazelwood bears the ultimate responsibility for the wreck of the Exxon Valdez. But his actions were not the only factors that contributed to the disaster. An exclusive TIME report unveils a wider web of culpability in which Exxon and the Coast Guard must share the blame. See ENVIRONMENT...