Crew member on cellphone led to 2022 ship collision in the Gulf of Mexico

The sole crew member in charge of the cargo ship Thunder was ‘distracted by his cell phone’ moments before it collided with another vessel in the Gulf of Mexico – causing $12 million worth of damage.

The Bunun Queen, a 600 foot bulk carrier traveling at 14.8 knots, crashed into the Thunder, which measures 250-feet and was traveling at nine knots, in ‘good visibility, daylight and fair-weather conditions,’ the National Transportation Safety Board report states. 

The accident occurred at 1pm local time in July 2022, around 60 miles off of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

Pictures released by the NTSB show a gaping hole in the portside hull of the Thunder which allowed water to flood in from the 1,400 feet deep gulf. The damage cost over $11 million to fix, while the repairs to the Bunun Queen totaled $680,000. 

The watch officer was alerted to the presence of the Bunun Queen when a member of the crew saw the ship out of a porthole and notified the bridge. Most of the other crewmembers were having lunch in the mess at the time. 

The significantly less-impacted bow of the Bunun Queen – though despite the largely superficial damage, the ship also took on water

The report concluded that the watch officer’s use of a cellphone caused the accident. Investigators said the officer took a minute long personal phone call and dictated several text messages using an app at the time. 

Despite sustaining ‘substantial damage,’ there were no injuries among the 18-member crew of the Thunder, nor was anyone hurt onboard the Bunun Queen. The Thunder was evacuated with numerous nearby boats responding to its distress call.

The damage suffered by the Bunun Queen included dents and a crack, and some water was taken on board. There were 20 crew members on board. 

Thunder was returning a group oil workers from a nearby rig at the time.  

The Thunder tried to turn away to no avail with the initial crash causing the electronics on board to flicker while ripping a hole in the hull.  

The NTSB did not absolve the Bunun Queen’s crew of wrongdoing, accusing its watch officers of being distracted with ‘non-navigational tasks’ at the time. 

There was only one watch officer on the bridge of the thunder when the crash occurred 

The NTSB report did not absolve the crew of the Bunun Queen of wrongdoing, also blaming them for the incident because they were distracted 

An illustration showing the path to collision that both ships took 

The crash occurred 66 miles south of Port Fourchon in Louisiana 

‘Using cell phones and other personal electronic devices has been demonstrated to be visually, manually, and cognitively distracted. 

‘Nonoperational use of cell phones and other wireless electronic devices by on-duty crewmembers in safety-critical positions has been a factor in accidents in all transportation modes,’ one section of the report read. 

The officer’s role was to monitor for potential collision threats, such as vessels or oil rigs, as the Thunder cruised on autopilot. 

‘The Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea requires “every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate,”‘ the report reads. 

Cell phones have been at the center of several transport accidents in the past.

In 2008, a commuter train driver in California was found to have been texting prior to his train colliding with a freight train after running a red light, causing the deaths of 25 people and injuring dozens more. 

As a result of that crash, train operators were banned from using cell phones at work. The pilot of cargo ship that ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay in March 2022 was found to have been on a call and sending text messages just before that incident.