Ship’s Master Puts Some Blame on Pilot

The blaring ship’s horn that warned Christmas shoppers a runaway freighter was about to smash into a crowded waterfront mall in New Orleans may have itself contributed to the accident, a board of inquiry was told. The Chinese master of the freighter, Deng Jing Quan, testified that his crew was unable to hear his first radioed orders to drop anchor in the middle of the river because the ship’s pilot was blowing the emergency horn. The testimony came on the second day of a Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board hearing into Saturday’s accident in which the 763-foot Bright Field crashed into the mall, injuring 116 people.