NTSB: Communications outage a factor in lift boat disaster

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal agency says an outage involving a Coast Guard marine warning system and “data gaps” in radar systems were factors in last year’s deadly capsize of an oil industry lift boat off Louisiana’s coast. A report issued Tuesday bythe National Transportation Safety Board said the captain of the Seacor Power made a “reasonable” decision to get underway on April 13, 2021, en route to an offshore platform. But the report said he had insufficient weather information from the liftboat company. And he never received a warning about approaching severe weather because of a Coast Guard broadcasting station outage. The disaster caused 13 deaths.