Bar Pilot Found Responsible for Oil Spill

The State Board of Pilot Commissioners found yesterday that John Cota, the Bay pilot aboard the Cosco Busan last November 7 when it hit the Bay Bridge, made seven serious mistakes that directly caused the 54,000-gallon oil spill that polluted Bay waters, fouled miles of shoreline and killed thousands of animals.

The commission concluded that chief among Cota’s errors were:

• he should not have left in the fog
• he couldn’t read the ship’s electronic charts
• he had difficulty communicating with the Chinese crew
• he didn’t resolve a problem with the ship’s radar
• and he was moving too fast.

The finding means little at this point as Cota, 60, voluntarily retired on October 1, and the only action the commission was allowed would have been to revoke his pilot’s license. Federal criminal charges and several lawsuits are pending against Cota and the Hong Kong company that owned the ship.