SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard report blames a crab boat’s owner and captain for a fatal 2017 voyage in the Bering Sea.
The Seattle-based fishing vessel Destination went missing Feb. 11, 2017, off a remote Alaska island. The bodies of its six crew members have not been found. It was the worst Alaska crab-boat disaster in more than a decade.
The report concluded the boat was overloaded when it left port; the captain set out in freezing spray with a fatigued crew that failed to remove a heavy buildup of ice on the hull and gear; and an open hatch would have allowed rapid flooding.
Some family members questioned why the Coast Guard would not pursue criminal penalties against the boat’s owners.
A sonar image taken by the crew of a federal research vessel in the summer of 2017 located the Destination lying on its side more than 250 feet down on the ocean floor.