NTSB: Experienced Towboat Pilot Hit a Bridge on the Mississippi
A towboat pilot's improper compensation for a river cross-current resulted in an allision with a bridge at Fort Madison, Iowa last year, according to the NTSB.
On May 9, 2024, the towboat Joe B. Wyatt was pushing 15 barges down the Mississippi near Fort Madison, Iowa. As the pilot rounded Dutchman Island and lined up on the main span of the Fort Madison Bridge, an old swing bridge with a 200-foot-wide main channel, he intentionally steered to starboard of the charted sailing line. Based on 24 years of experience and 15 transits of this particular route, he expected to encounter a cross-current from around the other side of the island, which he believed would set the tow to port. The effects of that cross-current did not materialize, leaving the towboat off course and headed at eight knots for a bridge piling protection cell. The pilot had about 1,900 feet of forward travel distance remaining to react.
He increased power and attempted to swing the head of the tow to port, back into the center of the channel. Though he avoided a head-on allision - which could have seriously affected the two deckhands up at the head of the tow - the maneuver was not quite successful, and the third barge on the starboard side hit the protection cell fendering system. The tow broke up and about a dozen barges drifted off downriver, with two deckhands aboard. One barge eventually sank and was later refloated.
No injuries or pollution were reported. Damage to the bridge fenders, the barges and the Joe B. Wyatt was estimated at about $3.3 million.
"There was no evidence that the pilot was fatigued, impaired, or distracted before or during the casualty," NTSB found. "Given the vessel’s speed at the time, the following current, and the number of barges, there was likely not time for the pilot to prevent the contact with the protection cell by backing the tow."
The agency concluded that the pilot overcompensated for the expected crosscurrents. It advised that a charted sailing line is a safe route when used as a guide, "along with the mariner’s own experience and assessment of the existing circumstances."