It was the “perfect storm” of problems.
A pair of inexperienced MTA boaters wrecked the transit authority’s 25-foot workboat Perfect Storm after choppy waters forced them to abandon ship near Coney Island.
Fearing for their lives amid unexpectedly harrowing conditions, the two workers called for a rescue team, which opted not to salvage the ship until the morning — by which time Perfect Storm had already “crashed into the rocky shoreline and capsized,” MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said Monday.
An IG investigation into the Oct. 15, 2020, incident revealed “an untenable situation on multiple levels” in which no official rules existed for the 20-year-old vessel, while its two-man crew lacked training, experience and — in one man’s case — the ability to swim.
“I cannot fathom how MTA management would allow these unqualified employees to set
sail in the first place,” Pokorny said in a statement. “Clearly this lack of oversight is ultimately responsible for turning the Perfect Storm into a total wreck.”
Pokorny’s investigation revealed that the boat’s assigned captain had only piloted the boat — or any boat — once in his life before being assigned to take the ship out on Oct. 15 to monitor repairs near Roosevelt Island and be available for search and rescue.
One couldn’t swim. Double duh!
Will insurance pay knowing the boat was taken out by unqualified doofuses?
You can bet that the boat maintenance money won’t disappear from the budget, even if they don’t replace the boat.