Coast Guard Fleet Slowed by Mechanical Woes During BP, Haiti Rescues

Coast Guard Fleet Slowed by Mechanical Woes During BP, Haiti Rescues
By Aaron Mehta and John Solomon | Center for Public Integrity

In the wee-morning hours after the Deepwater Horizon exploded, a Coast Guard rescue helicopter being dispatched to pluck oil rig survivors floating in the fire-engulfed waters could not launch because its hoist was broken.

The crew of the 25-year-old chopper was forced to switch to another aircraft, costing it 38 minutes at a time when the Coast Guard was trying to evacuate the wounded and search for missing workers who leapt into the Gulf Mexico to escape the fiery oil platform on the night of April 20.

Mechanical problems, like those detailed in the Coast Guard’s official incident logs for the BP accident, have been experienced repeatedly during the last two major crises that summoned the service’s famed search and rescue teams, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity shows.

At least three Coast Guard aircraft and one cutter suffered serious mechanical problems that delayed, cut short or aborted rescue missions during the Gulf incident, the logs reveal. The Coast Guard averaged one problem for every seven rescue sorties it operated during the first three days of the oil spill crisis in April, according to logs obtained by the Center. Read more.