Germac told investigators that it is not uncommon for pilots to complete “various personal tasks while underway,” although another pilot interviewed by the Coast Guard stated that he did not make personal calls while in transit. and 8:15 p.m.), a critical time period leading up to when the turn south into the lower Craighill Channel should have been executed,” stated the report, which also found that he “began drafting an email immediately before the grounding occurred regarding issues he experienced with facility line handlers.” “Further, he sent two text messages at 20 (8:07 p.m. At least one of the five phone calls he made was a work call, the report said, but it was “not urgent and unrelated to the current safe navigation” of the Ever Forward. The Coast Guard report cited AT&T records, which found that Germac (who was identified as “Pilot 1″) spent about 61 minutes of the “126-minute voyage up to the grounding” on his personal cellphone, including a 55-minute personal call. Maryland law requires foreign vessels to employ an expert pilot licensed by the state to navigate state waters, and Germac was the expert pilot for the Ever Forward, which sailed under the Hong Kong flag. Unlike the Ever Given, the Ever Forward did not block shipping, instead causing only minor inconvenience in the shipping channel as crews worked to free it. The Ever Forward is owned by the same Taiwanese company, Evergreen Marine Corp., as the Ever Given, a ship that became internationally infamous for blocking shipping through the Suez Canal for six days in 2021. The pilot has requested the opportunity for a hearing, according to the Coast Guard report.
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