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TAEAN - An investigation into a collision between an oil tanker and a barge that occurred last week just off of South Korea’s western coast has provided evidence that the tugboats owned by Samsung Heavy Industries that were involved in the collision were out of radio contact with their control tower for approximately one hour before the accident occurred. Contact records show that just the mobile phone of one of the tugboat captains was used, raising doubts that no one was in the steering room for a considerable amount of time.

Officials of the Taean maritime police and Daesan Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office confirmed on December 14 that no action was taken for more than an hour prior to the collision. The collision occurred when the cable tethering a crane-carrying barge to a fleet of tugboats collided with the Hebei Spirit, a Hong-Kong registered supertanker. The fleet, which is owned by Samsung, consisted of two tugboats, a ferryboat and a barge, and collided with the supertanker at approximately 7 a.m. on December 7.

A person employed at the Daesan control tower said, “Before the crash occurred on December 7, we tried to communicate with the Samsung tugboats for about two minutes at 5:23 a.m. but failed.” The control tower was using channel 16, which is emergency frequency and is commonly used by all boats.

The contact records show that the Samsung fleet had sent wireless signals via the wireless transmitter of the ferryboat Samho T-3 to the control center to inform it that they were out of control at around 6:56, just five minutes before the collision, according to the control center staff. “If an emergency happened, they certainly should have sent an SOS through channel 16, but they didn’t do so and we didn’t understand why they wouldn’t,” said a control center official.

The crane-carrying barge was the only vessel among the four boats in the fleet that was not equipped with communication devices.

The tugboat crews have claimed that they changed course twice in order to distance themselves from the oil tanker, but officials from the Daesan Maritime and Fisheries Office said that they have not found any evidence of a course change.

In response, a Samsung official said, “Due to bad weather, the captain of the Samsung T-5 (one of the two tugboats) was working in the steering room at around 2 a.m. on December 7 and attempted to return to Incheon around 4 p.m., but failed because the barge was out of control. The boat’s radios were on the official emergency frequency, but they couldn’t get a signal because they were trying to change course. They made radio contact after making a call with a mobile telephone,” added the official.

Samsung has refused requests for an interview with the caption of the Samsung T-5, saying that an investigation is already under way and the truth could be distorted.


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