An internal investigation by BC Ferries has found that ‘procedural error’ led to a March 26 incident in which the Queen of Surrey crashed into a dock in Langdale.
Darren Johnston, executive director of fleet operations for BC Ferries, said there were two main errors made.
“The ship was not turned accurately enough onto its final approach track,” he said.
“And the speed was not reduced early enough to ensure that the vessel could be stopped in a safe distance from the end of the pontoon that the contact occurred between the sip and the berth structure.”
Johnston said BC Ferries has accepted all the findings of the internal investigation into the incident and had already made at least one fix.
“The inclusion of an additional officer on the bridge during final approach into the berth to conduct cross check verification to ensure the procedures are fully implemented prior to the arrival,” he noted.
WATCH: (March 26, 2019) BC Ferry hits dock and damages front of ship in Langdale
Johnston couldn’t say whether the crew members involved in the crash were disciplined in any way, or if they received further training.
“It wasn’t necessarily lack of training. It was failure to implement the use of standard operating procedures, including the use of checklists,” he said.
Danyelle Girard was on the vessel when it collided.
“There was a bunch of noise,” she told Global News at the time. “It sounded really loud all of a sudden, like the brakes started going all weird from the back of the ferry.
“And then, all of a sudden they came over the speaker and it was just like, ‘Brace, brace, brace brace!’ and everything just slammed forward and everything jolted forward.”
Nobody was hurt in the crash, but around 285 passengers were stranded for about 10 hours as a tugboat worked to free the ship from a pontoon it was stuck on.
Johnston confirmed there were no mechanical defects in the ship that led to the incident.
WATCH: (March 26, 2019) Sailings cancelled between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale