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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Robert Wyman

Aired February 22, 2004 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We've been telling you this morning about a maritime accident in the Mississippi River. Five crewmembers of an oil rig supply vessel are missing after their boat collided with a cargo ship near the mouth of the river. The accident has blocked the Southwest Passage, the largest of three waterways that connect the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
For the latest on the search and rescue operation, Coast Guard public affairs officer Robert Wyman joins us on the phone from New Orleans.

Good morning to you, sir. Can you give us an update? Daylight obviously coming back to the scene there. Where does it stand regarding looking for these missing men?

ROBERT WYMAN, U.S. COAST GUARD: Good morning. Well, we do have Coast Guard resources that remain on scene this morning. One of our 87-foot patrol boats, as well as one our small boats from station Venice (ph) are out there continuing their searches near the vessel and conducting shoreline searches.

SAVIDGE: Now, we understand it's possible, holding out the hope that maybe some of those members could be trapped in airspace beneath the water. Do you have divers, or who could go down there and try to find them?

WYMAN: Well, we're certainly holding out hope for that. We have brought in some U.S. Navy drivers, and we are working with them. They're actually going to be operating off one of the other boats that are assisting us in our search. So we do have Navy divers out there today as well.

SAVIDGE: Now, also, I read you weren't discounting the possibility that some of the crew, all of the crew, could have swam to shore?

WYMAN: Anything is possible. What we are doing throughout the day today is conducting shoreline searches. We had our vessels and aircraft on scene within about 30 minutes after this accident happened. And when we arrived on scene, we didn't have any signs of anybody anywhere. But we are continuing that search throughout the day.

SAVIDGE: And how far of a swim would that have been?

WYMAN: To the shoreline, it probably would have been about a half a mile.

SAVIDGE: That's some distance. And the channel itself we were talking about, it's still blocked as a result of all of this?

WYMAN: The channel, the Southwest Pass is completely blocked. Our marine safety office in New Orleans captain of the port has put a closure in that area. So from the sea buoy offshore to the head of pass is completely closed to all maritime traffic.

SAVIDGE: And is that a big disruption?

WYMAN: It is going to be. It potentially has -- you know, it does have the potential to be a significant disruption in maritime traffic. We have approximately 40 vessels who are in what we call the queue. They're waiting to come in or either to depart through the mouth of the Mississippi River.

And we also have several cruise ships that are either waiting to come in or leave the port. So we are working with maritime industry to keep them closely apprised of what's happening, and we're working with the company who owns the vessels to monitor their salvage plans and get the salvage operation under way as quickly as possible.

SAVIDGE: All right. Well, right now, obviously your concerns, our concerns, are with the missing crewmembers. Hopefully they will be found alive and well. I wanted to ask you about the investigation and how this could have happened, but time just doesn't allow it right now. Hopefully we can get back to you on that.

Thank you.

WYMAN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 22, 2004 - 09:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We've been telling you this morning about a maritime accident in the Mississippi River. Five crewmembers of an oil rig supply vessel are missing after their boat collided with a cargo ship near the mouth of the river. The accident has blocked the Southwest Passage, the largest of three waterways that connect the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
For the latest on the search and rescue operation, Coast Guard public affairs officer Robert Wyman joins us on the phone from New Orleans.

Good morning to you, sir. Can you give us an update? Daylight obviously coming back to the scene there. Where does it stand regarding looking for these missing men?

ROBERT WYMAN, U.S. COAST GUARD: Good morning. Well, we do have Coast Guard resources that remain on scene this morning. One of our 87-foot patrol boats, as well as one our small boats from station Venice (ph) are out there continuing their searches near the vessel and conducting shoreline searches.

SAVIDGE: Now, we understand it's possible, holding out the hope that maybe some of those members could be trapped in airspace beneath the water. Do you have divers, or who could go down there and try to find them?

WYMAN: Well, we're certainly holding out hope for that. We have brought in some U.S. Navy drivers, and we are working with them. They're actually going to be operating off one of the other boats that are assisting us in our search. So we do have Navy divers out there today as well.

SAVIDGE: Now, also, I read you weren't discounting the possibility that some of the crew, all of the crew, could have swam to shore?

WYMAN: Anything is possible. What we are doing throughout the day today is conducting shoreline searches. We had our vessels and aircraft on scene within about 30 minutes after this accident happened. And when we arrived on scene, we didn't have any signs of anybody anywhere. But we are continuing that search throughout the day.

SAVIDGE: And how far of a swim would that have been?

WYMAN: To the shoreline, it probably would have been about a half a mile.

SAVIDGE: That's some distance. And the channel itself we were talking about, it's still blocked as a result of all of this?

WYMAN: The channel, the Southwest Pass is completely blocked. Our marine safety office in New Orleans captain of the port has put a closure in that area. So from the sea buoy offshore to the head of pass is completely closed to all maritime traffic.

SAVIDGE: And is that a big disruption?

WYMAN: It is going to be. It potentially has -- you know, it does have the potential to be a significant disruption in maritime traffic. We have approximately 40 vessels who are in what we call the queue. They're waiting to come in or either to depart through the mouth of the Mississippi River.

And we also have several cruise ships that are either waiting to come in or leave the port. So we are working with maritime industry to keep them closely apprised of what's happening, and we're working with the company who owns the vessels to monitor their salvage plans and get the salvage operation under way as quickly as possible.

SAVIDGE: All right. Well, right now, obviously your concerns, our concerns, are with the missing crewmembers. Hopefully they will be found alive and well. I wanted to ask you about the investigation and how this could have happened, but time just doesn't allow it right now. Hopefully we can get back to you on that.

Thank you.

WYMAN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com