USCG Kulluk Hearing May 20th

Professional Mariner Forum
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Coast Guard schedules hearing for Kulluk grounding
By WorkBoat Staff
5/14/2013 0 0

          ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Coast Guard formal marine casualty  investigation hearing is scheduled for May 20 at noon, at the Anchorage  Loussac Library, Assembly Hall Chambers, to investigate the contributing  causes that led to the conical drilling unit Kulluk grounding on  Sitkalidak Island Dec. 31, 2012.

The Coast Guard conducts investigations following marine casualties to determine the causal and contributing factors that led to the incident. This allows the Coast Guard to potentially save lives and protect the environment in the future by identifying what went wrong and how it can be avoided in the future.

The investigative hearings are an essential part of the investigative process, which provide a forum for the investigating officer to collect information from government and industry professionals about the incident.

Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander, Coast Guard 17th District, ordered the formal marine casualty investigation to examine the facts, circumstances, and causal factors involved in the Kulluk grounding.

Cmdr. Joshua McTaggart from the Coast Guard Investigations National Center of Expertise is conducting the investigation with the assistance of technical advisors from Coast Guard Sector Anchorage and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board are also participating in the investigation.

Witnesses from the Coast Guard, Shell, Nobel, and other organizations, as identified, will be called to testify about the facts and circumstance surrounding the grounding of the Kulluk.

Once the investigation is completed, the investigating officer will submit a written report of investigation, which will include findings of facts, conclusions, and recommendations. Ostebo will use the findings and recommendations within the report to determine whether additional measures are required to prevent such marine casualties and what if any actions need to be taken to promote safety of life and property at sea.

For more information about the Kulluk grounding and response, visit www.kullukresponse.com.

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here’s the hearing schedule

Media Advisory: Coast Guard updates Kulluk hearing schedule in Anchorage, Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Coast Guard has updated its schedule for the formal marine casualty investigation hearing into the Kulluk grounding, scheduled to take place at the Anchorage Loussac Library, Assembly Hall Chambers, beginning Monday at noon.

May 20 - Shell
May 21 - Offshore Rig Mover’s International*, Shell
May 22 - Noble, Crowley
May 23 - Edison Chouest Offshore
May 24 - Shell Marine, Edison Chouest Offshore Alaska Operations
May 25 - Shell Alaska Operations, Nobel*
May 28 - Delmar*, Offshore Rig Mover’s International
May 29 - Offshore Rig Mover’s International, U.S. Coast Guard
May 30 - Shell*, Edison Chouest Offshore
May 31 - Edison Chouest Offshore

  • Testimony is scheduled to be conducted via telephone. All scheduled testimonies are subject to change at the needs of the investigating officer.

Hearings beginning on Tuesday will be conducted from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. These are closed-door hearings, and attendees will not be authorized to leave during testimony unless in an emergency situation.

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does gCaptain have Mario Vittone there? I sure hope so!

Kulluk Hearing Kicks Off in Alaska
By gCaptain Staff On May 20, 2013

800×571 71.3 KB

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday kicked off its formal marine casualty investigation hearing into the December 31 grounding of Shell’s Kulluk drilling rig on Sitkalidak Island.

The closed-door hearing, which is being held in Anchorage, Alaska, will look to examine the facts, circumstances, and causal factors involved in the Kulluk grounding.

The Kulluk, a conical drilling unit owned by Shell, was under tow by the M/V Aiviq from Dutch Harbor to Seattle when it ran into rough weather and broke free from its tow on December 27. The Kulluk grounded four days later in shallow water off Sitkalidak Island, near Kodiak Island, after several failed attempts to reconnect.

Commandor Joshua McTaggart from the Coast Guard Investigations National Center of Expertise is conducting the investigation with the assistance of technical advisors from Coast Guard Sector Anchorage and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board are also participating in the investigation.

Witnesses from the Coast Guard, Shell, Nobel, and other organizations, as identified, will be called to testify about the facts and circumstance surrounding the grounding of the Kulluk.

Once the investigation is completed, the investigating officer will submit a written report of investigation, which will include findings of facts, conclusions, and recommendations.

The Kulluk’s grounding capped a series of mishaps that have dogged Shell’s effort to tap Arctic oil, and eventually led the company to withdraw from its 2013 Arctic drilling program.

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No, we would have liked to but it’s a closed session and gCaptain was not offered press passes (which is unusual).

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[QUOTE=john;110006]No, we would have liked to but it’s a closed session and gCaptain was not offered press passes (which is unusual).[/QUOTE]

I guess they know that this site does not pull punches and reports it the way that it is. Hopefully someone will leak what is going on in those hearings as we all deserve to know the truth of what really happened.

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I do not understand the legal basis for conducting a closed hearing. Even if they can legally do this, it’s damn poor policy and smalls of corruption and a whitewash that will have no credibility. Do they intend to issue sealed report too?

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[QUOTE=john;110006]No, we would have liked to but it’s a closed session and gCaptain was not offered press passes (which is unusual).[/QUOTE]

That the USCG closed the hearing smells of political influence on the USCG.

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[QUOTE=tengineer;110016]That the USCG closed the hearing smells of political influence on the USCG.[/QUOTE]

A public agency the USCG holding hearings about an incident that happened in USA waters involving USA players and it is a closed hearing and no press pass for gCaptain? Oh, this reeks but you have to admire whoever pulled this off in a way, but an outsider would think this was a banana republic.

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Gee, it’s not like this is an important hearing or anything. They could have really screwed it up for anyone else that wants to drill up there and that is way less important than a 50 year old movie set that sunk due to it’s Captain sailing into a storm, which had it’s hearing open to the public and streamed live! Go Figure???

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$$$$$$$$$ follow the trail

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don’t y’all know you can’t embarrass chouest in public!

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[QUOTE=tengineer;110025]… an outsider would think this was a banana republic.[/QUOTE]

You don’t have to be an outsider to see that we are the newest banana republic. Rule number 1 for the beltway bunch is to operate in the dark when your retirement funding is at stake.

They used to be ashamed of shit like this but since they discovered that you and I can’t do a F’ing thing about it they don’t even bother to pretend anymore.

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[QUOTE=tengineer;110016]That the USCG closed the hearing smells of political influence on the USCG.[/QUOTE]

Are you EFFING KIDDING? The USCG is owned outright by Edison Chouest Offshore and the other OMSA companies and all pertinent member of the the Senate and House are also bought and paid for by Mr. Gary and the other famiglia. There is so much money for elected politicians and cushy retirement jobs for ex USCG O5 and up retireees that there is no way that the USCG was going to allow this hearing to be public but BULLSHIT on barring gCaptain!

John, I hope you have friends at the Anchorage Daily News or can cultivate a few. They were very open to us unwashed mariners here before.

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[QUOTE=Steamer;110040]You don’t have to be an outsider to see that we are the newest banana republic. Rule number 1 for the beltway bunch is to operate in the dark when your retirement funding is at stake.

They used to be ashamed of shit like this but since they discovered that you and I can’t do a F’ing thing about it they don’t even bother to pretend anymore.[/QUOTE]

Sad thing is the public is so ignorant we keep reelecting these criminals . These guys figured out years ago that all you got to do to get reelected and keep fleecing the public is rant about abortion,guns gays, immigration, welfare, socialism, Sharia law, the debt [except when it is your party in power] but meanwhile you you don’t have to actually do anything about these things you just distract the voters with this BS so you can keep lying and stealing for those that line your pockets.
If I am going to live in a banana republic I might as well move to one where they are at least upfront about it and the cost of living is lower.Heck in some countries I would have enough money to actually participate in the government!

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[QUOTE=tengineer;110045]Sad thing is the public is so ignorant we keep reelecting these criminals . These guys figured out years ago that all you got to do to get reelected and keep fleecing the public is rant about abortion,guns gays, immigration, welfare, socialism, Sharia law, the debt [except when it is your party in power] but meanwhile you you don’t have to actually do anything about these things you just distract the voters with this BS so you can keep lying and stealing for those that line your pockets.
If I am going to live in a banana republic I might as well move to one where they are at least upfront about it and the cost of living is lower.Heck in some countries I would have enough money to actually participate in the government![/QUOTE]

Contact your local NPR station and the NPR national news. Let them know about this. No other news organization is going to touch this coverup. Let them know that this is a coverup of environmental crimes and fraud on the part of the CG and the oil companies and their flacks.

As much as we need arctic oil and the jobs that go along with them we need to expose the CG/big oil incest and we need to make sure that the jobs last beyond the near certainty of another oil disaster that will prevent anyone here from ever working offshore Alaska. Don’t let the CG or the oil companies destroy your future just to keep a couple of admirals in gravy for a few more years. Scream bloody murder. Send the NPR news people links to this site and the conversations. What does the CG want to hide? Who got paid to make these hearings secret? Who benefits from this kind of secret governance?

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I’m too busy myself at the moment with buying this boat and getting back to work next week but I hope someone squawks. Personally, I think the gCaptain staff should be the one’s to make the loudest noise. This is the maritime industry’s number one forum and source of information for working mariners and their being denied a seat in the hearingroom is unconscionable!

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[QUOTE=Steamer;110049]Contact your local NPR station and the NPR national news. Let them know about this. No other news organization is going to touch this coverup. Let them know that this is a coverup of environmental crimes and fraud on the part of the CG and the oil companies and their flacks.

As much as we need arctic oil and the jobs that go along with them we need to expose the CG/big oil incest and we need to make sure that the jobs last beyond the near certainty of another oil disaster that will prevent anyone here from ever working offshore Alaska. Don’t let the CG or the oil companies destroy your future just to keep a couple of admirals in gravy for a few more years. Scream bloody murder. Send the NPR news people links to this site and the conversations. What does the CG want to hide? Who got paid to make these hearings secret? Who benefits from this kind of secret governance?[/QUOTE]

You have to wonder if the same parties could have made the USCG Macondo hearings closed.

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[QUOTE=c.captain;110044] no way that the USCG was going to allow this hearing to be public but BULLSHIT on barring gCaptain![/QUOTE]

I didn’t say they barred us… I said they didn’t offer us a pass.

It may not be EOC that’s blocking it, may be the Coast Guard or Shell (we just don’t know). I do know some of the USCG brass (including the one wearing camo :wink: ) are no longer fans of gCaptain and are pushing for greater secrecy at all hearings. I also know that our Freedom of Information act requests for the release of information about previous hearings (e.g. photos of the Deepwater Horizon, Report on Survivability Of the DWH’s VDR, etc) has been denied (or, more accurately, put in Limbo) … but I don’t have any facts on why a press pass wasn’t offered in this case.

It could also be our fault. With OTC, trips overseas and the signing up of a bunch of new advertisers… it’s been a busy month and we failed to be proactive about this.

Last minute plane tickets to AK also happen to be expensive and we are still waiting for that RigZone sized check :wink:

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[QUOTE=Steamer;110049]Contact your local NPR station and the NPR national news. Let them know about this. No other news organization is going to touch this coverup.[/QUOTE]

Contacting your local station is useless but contacting individual reporters at the national level sometimes works (or, at least, has worked for me in the past).

[QUOTE=Steamer;110049]No other news organization is going to touch this coverup.[/QUOTE]

In my dealings with the press I have found no conspiracy to coverup anything just a widespread lack of understanding and a total lack of concern for our industry.

The trick to getting press is knowing which reporters would be interested. If, for instance, you wanted to ‘leak’ a story about a certain commandant with a resume that includes Guantanamo Bay detention camp, your only chance of getting press coverage would be to find ONE journalist at a big paper with wide distribution (e.g. the NYTimes) who focuses on local, New York City, education and has reported on similar topics in the past :wink:

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[QUOTE=tengineer;110045]Sad thing is the public is so ignorant we keep reelecting these criminals . These guys figured out years ago that all you got to do to get reelected and keep fleecing the public is rant about abortion,guns gays, immigration, welfare, socialism, Sharia law, the debt [except when it is your party in power] but meanwhile you you don’t have to actually do anything about these things you just distract the voters with this BS so you can keep lying and stealing for those that line your pockets.
If I am going to live in a banana republic I might as well move to one where they are at least upfront about it and the cost of living is lower.Heck in some countries I would have enough money to actually participate in the government![/QUOTE]

I’ve been saying till blue in the face…we don’t vote at the rate other countries do. We need term limits, and higher voter turnout so we can throw out incumbents. Every election day should be a paid day off, mandatory. Treat it seriously. I can dream, anyway.