Pilot involved in Ever Forward’s Chesapeake Bay grounding suspended

Pilot involved in Ever Forward’s Chesapeake Bay grounding suspended
Sam Chambers December 7, 2022 https://splash247.com/pilot-involved-in-ever-forwards-chesapeake-bay-gro...

The operating license of the Ever Forward pilot who steered the containership into the muddy bottom of the Chesapeake Bay this spring has been suspended, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, citing his excessive use of his mobile phone at the time.

The ship was finally freed in mid-April, more than a month after it ran aground.

“For approximately half of the two-hour transit, the pilot on board the container ship placed and received numerous calls, texted messages, and draft emails on their personal cell phone right up until the incident,” a report from the US Coast Guard stated.

Additionally, the pilot relied solely on its portable pilot unit for navigation and was watching playback of a previous transit at the time of the incident. The pilot was drafting an email on his personal mobile phone in the minutes leading up to the planned turn south, when the vessel sailed through its waypoint and grounded. The vessel’s bridge team attempted to cue the pilot by repeating the heading. However, by the time the bridge team became more assertive about the ship’s heading, it was too late to prevent the vessel from grounding.

The Ever Forward was refloated on April 17 this year after being stuck in the mud in Chesapeake Bay for more than a month. A high tide, along with a month’s worth of work – dredging around the ship and removing 505 containers – finally brought success to the effort.