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American Morning

Staten Island Accident

Aired October 16, 2003 - 07:37   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back to the Staten Island accident yesterday. What caused New York City's worst mass transit accident in almost a century? The National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB, the leading investigation arm right now.
Ellen Engleman is on scene. She's the chairwoman in the NTSB.

She joins us live this morning from Staten Island.

Thank you for your time this morning.

I know there's a number of questions you cannot answer, but let me try a few.

There are reports today that say the pilot may not have been awake at the time that ferry hit the pier. Is that accurate, do you know?

ELLEN ENGLEMAN, CHAIRMAN, NTSB: There's a lot of conflicting data and information that's out there right now as far as what happened on the bridge, and that's why we're here. The NTSB, a full investigation team arrived around 11:00 p.m. last night. At 8:30 this morning, we'll have our first organizational meeting and start our road map for our investigation to determine what really happened.

Right now I'm not going to confirm or deny any specific incident, because we have not conducted the personal interviews ourselves. However, initial interviews that were conducted by the Coast Guard, New York police and other parties will be part of our investigation, and we're receiving that data.

HEMMER: Let me try one more angle here. There's another report that says he might have been low on medication at the time.

Is that true?

ENGLEMAN: Once again, there's a lot of conflict and a lot of information out there. We're going to focus on facts and science and data and separate that from any guess or supposition. So we're on the job and we're getting to it immediately this morning.

We will conduct personal interviews with those parties that were involved. We'll be talking to the crew, the passengers, the emergence responders and any other folks that were involved in either seeing or having information about this tragic accident.

Right now, we want to get organized. We have a very deliberate and precise situation that we go through. The evolution of our investigation is very thorough. There are four factors we'll be looking at -- human factors, deck operations, engine operations and survival factors.

HEMMER: Back to your first answer, if I could. Have you interviewed anyone at this point?

ENGLEMAN: We have not begun our personal interviews yet. Our organizational meeting will begin at 8:30 this morning. Our investigator in charge, Bob Ford, will be conducting that meeting. All the principal parties will be involved, including the Coast Guard and others, and we'll start the personal interviews as soon as possible thereafter.

HEMMER: Now, is the pilot in a condition right now where he could be interviewed?

ENGLEMAN: We're looking into that. We want to talk to everyone that was personally involved as soon as possible. The folks that were on the bridge are obviously key to this. We want to hear from them personally about what happened. We're going to look into all sorts of other information.

Our investigations involve the mechanical aspects, training aspects, weather, personnel. Every possible aspect, whether it's a contributing factor or the actual probable cause, will be thoroughly reviewed.

HEMMER: Yes, one final question, Ms. Engleman.

Have you ever seen a case with a ferry this size that would take with a wind gust and force it into a pier or into an area where it otherwise would not want to go? Is that a possibility?

ENGLEMAN: We do believe that weather is a factor in this and that is part of all of our investigation. There were significant wind gusts yesterday. But once again, whether that was a contributing factor or the actual probable cause of the accident is yet to be determined. It will be one key factor of our investigation. But we'll add with that, as I said, the human factors, the training, the maintenance, the condition of the vessel, the actual procedures. All of this will go into the full investigation that we are now conducting.

HEMMER: That's Ellen Engleman, the chairwoman of the NTSB, arriving on the scene there at the Staten Island ferry.

That investigation may take 12 months before there are any conclusions reached.

Thank you for your time.

We'll be speaking again.

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 October 16, 2003 - 07:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back to the Staten Island accident yesterday. What caused New York City's worst mass transit accident in almost a century? The National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB, the leading investigation arm right now.
Ellen Engleman is on scene. She's the chairwoman in the NTSB.

She joins us live this morning from Staten Island.

Thank you for your time this morning.

I know there's a number of questions you cannot answer, but let me try a few.

There are reports today that say the pilot may not have been awake at the time that ferry hit the pier. Is that accurate, do you know?

ELLEN ENGLEMAN, CHAIRMAN, NTSB: There's a lot of conflicting data and information that's out there right now as far as what happened on the bridge, and that's why we're here. The NTSB, a full investigation team arrived around 11:00 p.m. last night. At 8:30 this morning, we'll have our first organizational meeting and start our road map for our investigation to determine what really happened.

Right now I'm not going to confirm or deny any specific incident, because we have not conducted the personal interviews ourselves. However, initial interviews that were conducted by the Coast Guard, New York police and other parties will be part of our investigation, and we're receiving that data.

HEMMER: Let me try one more angle here. There's another report that says he might have been low on medication at the time.

Is that true?

ENGLEMAN: Once again, there's a lot of conflict and a lot of information out there. We're going to focus on facts and science and data and separate that from any guess or supposition. So we're on the job and we're getting to it immediately this morning.

We will conduct personal interviews with those parties that were involved. We'll be talking to the crew, the passengers, the emergence responders and any other folks that were involved in either seeing or having information about this tragic accident.

Right now, we want to get organized. We have a very deliberate and precise situation that we go through. The evolution of our investigation is very thorough. There are four factors we'll be looking at -- human factors, deck operations, engine operations and survival factors.

HEMMER: Back to your first answer, if I could. Have you interviewed anyone at this point?

ENGLEMAN: We have not begun our personal interviews yet. Our organizational meeting will begin at 8:30 this morning. Our investigator in charge, Bob Ford, will be conducting that meeting. All the principal parties will be involved, including the Coast Guard and others, and we'll start the personal interviews as soon as possible thereafter.

HEMMER: Now, is the pilot in a condition right now where he could be interviewed?

ENGLEMAN: We're looking into that. We want to talk to everyone that was personally involved as soon as possible. The folks that were on the bridge are obviously key to this. We want to hear from them personally about what happened. We're going to look into all sorts of other information.

Our investigations involve the mechanical aspects, training aspects, weather, personnel. Every possible aspect, whether it's a contributing factor or the actual probable cause, will be thoroughly reviewed.

HEMMER: Yes, one final question, Ms. Engleman.

Have you ever seen a case with a ferry this size that would take with a wind gust and force it into a pier or into an area where it otherwise would not want to go? Is that a possibility?

ENGLEMAN: We do believe that weather is a factor in this and that is part of all of our investigation. There were significant wind gusts yesterday. But once again, whether that was a contributing factor or the actual probable cause of the accident is yet to be determined. It will be one key factor of our investigation. But we'll add with that, as I said, the human factors, the training, the maintenance, the condition of the vessel, the actual procedures. All of this will go into the full investigation that we are now conducting.

HEMMER: That's Ellen Engleman, the chairwoman of the NTSB, arriving on the scene there at the Staten Island ferry.

That investigation may take 12 months before there are any conclusions reached.

Thank you for your time.

We'll be speaking again.

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