Disaster probe opens
Transportation Safety Board investigators are on scene
Two investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada have arrived in P.E.I. to begin an investigation into what might have caused a fishing board to sink off North Cape on Tuesday.
The board’s Regional Manager of Operations for the Atlantic Region, Pierre Murray, said investigators have no fixed list of questions.
“We look at the whole thing,” he said.
Safety equipment onboard the vessel, the seaworthiness of the vessel and its stability, and training of the crew are among the items that will be looked at.
As the investigators only arrived Wednesday evening, Murray said he still has no information on preliminary findings. He said the investigators will be interviewing witnesses and seeking to determine what happened off North Cape that caused the vessel to capsize.
Two members of the three-man crew – Capt. Glen DesRoches, 57, and Maurice (Moe) Getson, 54, have been missing since the vessel went down in rough seas. A third crew member, Tanner Gaudet, 22, managed to swim to shore. The search continues for DesRoches and Getson.
From the Vessel Monitoring System that the Kyla Anne had onboard, Murray said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was able to determine its last confirmed location, but he said it is not necessarily still in that location.
The “Kyla Anne” is believed to have gone down just after it rounded the North Cape reef while sailing towards home port in Tignish, Tuesday afternoon. Fishing boats out searching for the missing fishermen Wednesday night found debris, believed to be from the vessel, off the Phee Shore in Norway, P.E.I.
In announcing its investigation into the Kyla Anne’s sinking, the board indicated Wednesday its sole aim is the advancement of transportation safety, adding that it is not a function of the Board to assign fault or to determine civil or criminal liability
The Transportation Safety Board is an independent agency that investigates marine, pipeline, railway and aviation transportation occurrences.