Applications for arrest warrants have been filed for the captains of the crane barge, two tugs, and the tanker in connection with the oil spill in the West Sea. The crane barge and the tugs’ captains are being charged for “operations in bad weather” while the tanker captain(who BTW is Indian) is being charged for “not taking appropriate actions to prevent the disaster.” In other words, the tanker captain is being blamed for not scooting his huge tanker out of the way. Which IMO is ridiculous considering that moving a tanker at anchor is something that takes hours and not minutes.
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16 Comments
This is absurd, its as if they are trying to apply the same backword logic as they do for traffic accidents.
On that note, I beleive the Captain even tried to cut anchor to avoid collision.
From the perspective of the American-trained lawyer Korea employs a stupid form of res ipsa loquitur to the analysis of accidents: You’re not supposed to have an accident, you had an accident — ergo, you were clearly delinquent in your duty not to have an accident.
This might be tolerable in the assignment of civil liability. But here we’re talking about criminal jeopardy.
This was obvious from the JoongAng article as well; that the tanker captain was being unfairly charged for what he should not have been responsible for to begin with.
Once again, this sort of face-saving nonsense does not make jurisprudence in Korea look inviting for investors.
I hope that Indian captain has already done a runner.
After that KAL A300 went off the end of the runway on Cheju in ‘94, resulting in no loss of life but a complete hull loss, the Canadian captain wisely unassed the country quicklike. Sure enough, they were braying for his blood within 48 hours or so. (He had tried to land normally and brake, while the Korean first officer disagreed and tried to initiate a go around by pushing the throttles as the runway dwindled. Result? Barrier collision.)
Yes, it does seem like a face saving tactic, and a really poor one at that.
Are Roh’s cronies trying to poison thing for Lee before they get the shaft?
I definitely do not want to hear that an aircraft crash was caused by a disagreement between two pilots in the cockpit!
#7: Sorry, too late. That’s what you just heard. The captain is supposed to be the pilot-in-command, but not when he’s a waygook, I guess.
The funny thing is in the KAL Guam crash three years later the first officer and engineer didn’t lift a finger as the captain augured the 747 in.
I clicked on here expecting to see Counselor Carr speak about liability issue from the Korean perspective and I see I was not dissappointed
I’m sure I can be corrected here but the same principle works for vehicle accidents (which is why everyone should read Korealawblog and View from the Fence on the subject of driving in Korea) If you have an accident, you are ALWAYS partially at fault unless your vehicle is STOPPED and/or PARKED (even then you may still have some liability).
They need someone to scapegoat on this environmental disaster and you can bet if they can pin it on the other guy, that is exactly what will happen.
What I found so strange is that the government took this long to even react, albeit underhandedly. Roh did visit the site (though we’ll never know for how long), and it seems that’s the end of it. Not that I’m after having someone sued, but it’s the act and timeness of the government reacting to disasters of this scale, especially more so that it involves something precious to the country, that I’m puzzled.
If I compare this to how Gov. Schwarzenegger and his team did when a similar thing happened in the Bay Area not too long ago, you would have thought they would have learned a thing or two. Perhaps not…
Definitely a face saving measure, but I’m sure people here will deny it and call us evil expats for pointing out something that’s probably true. Oh well, it’s easier just to believe that someone else is always to blame.
#7 & #8,
I might be confusing korean air accidents (because there has been so fucking many!) but I think in the case of the canadian, he was not the pilot but the co-pilot, so technically not in charge.
And, wasn’t that the one where the flight recorder actually picked up the Canadian saying “my god, man! you’re going to kill us!”? Could be my selective memory but that’s what i remember. can anyone confirm that?
Sorry not to have a link to showcase other tanker accidents, but for those who’d like to check out what can happen when people use (really expensive) commercial aircraft, here you go.
That website, btw, has some great stuff - check it out.
Wedge’s memory serves him well.
Here’s the account.
The Korean co-pilot was lauded in the press as a hero. Captain Barry Woods was vilified.
Once the tapes were publicized Mr. Woods was released from detention, released from service, and sent home.
Not even a thank you for saving us from ourselves.
I was working for Asiana Airlines in 1993 when one of their planes crashed into a mountain near Mokpo. I do not remember what was officially reported to be the cause of the crash, but I remember hearing from people at Asiana that there were three mountain ridges on the approach to Mokpo Airport, which was not equipped for instrument landing, and that the pilot crashed into the third ridge.
I heard that in poor visibility Korean pilots would often land blind by counting the mountain ridges and then decending to an altitude below the cloud cover, which would mean disaster if you miscounted, and which was supposedly what happened on the day the Asiana plane crashed. I heard that after passing the second ridge, the pilot started descending, which caused the copilot to warn him that there was still one more ridge ahead. However, the pilot insisted that they had passed all three, which ended the debate.
Supposedly, the problem at the time was that the captains on Korean airliners were so arrogant and that they often ignored the opinions of their copilots, and I think Korean co-pilots were essentially trained not to question their superiors.
The moral of the story is that if you are going to fly blind, both the pilot and copilot should unanimously agree that there are no more mountains between you and the runway.
13, Thats a great link, thank for sharing.
A note on the last photographs of the Sea Harrier landing on the Spanish freighter; the captain, being a Greek, claimed salvage (thats why he did not give it up immediately). Eventually the British government had to shell out £570,000 for it.