The captain and deckhand barely had time to escape. Both spent more than 20 minutes in the frigid, dark river. Crew from the good Samaritan vessel George Leavell ultimately rescued them.
The sinking occurred Jan. 7, 2019, at 2030 at mile marker 15 near Calvert City, Ky., on a relatively calm night with good visibility. The 1,000-hp vessel, worth nearly $300,000, sank within the channel. It was scrapped after salvage.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators determined that flooding into Tom Bussler’s hull voids through numerous fractures caused the sinking.
“Throughout 2018, multiple issues with the hull were reported by crewmembers,” the NTSB report said. “However, attempts to find the leaks were unsuccessful, and the reported issues were not resolved. Instead, portable pumps were used to control the water ingress. … The lack of hull repair evidence and daily pumping of the towboat’s voids indicated that management did not address issues with the vessel’s watertight integrity in a timely manner.”
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