“The captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed in October 2003, killing 11 people, is suing the city. Michael Gansas wants his job back, with back pay, or he wants the city to arbitrate his grievances in front of a labor panel.” (AP/WJLA, Dec. 4). According to an AP story last month, Gansas’s “silence following the crash infuriated survivors, victims’ relatives and city officials, who accused him of handicapping the investigation” and he “was fired soon after the crash for failing to co-operate with the investigation”. When he did talk, he evidently didn’t deliver the gospel truth, either, it seems:
Gansas initially was accused of making false statements for telling United States coast guard investigators that he was in the pilot house when Smith passed out and had tried in vain to right the ferry. He later struck a deal with prosecutors to co-operate in their case against ferry supervisor Patrick Ryan in exchange for dropping the charge.
Ryan pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting he chose not to implement or enforce a rule requiring that ferries be operated by two pilots.
In a WCBS-TV interview last month, however, Gansas “says he initially lied about where he was during the crash because he wanted to share the blame. ‘I felt I had a responsibility as a captain to shoulder some of the blame for the actions of (assistant pilot) Richard Smith'”, he said. (“Captain lied to shoulder blame”, APNews24, Nov. 5). For more of Gansas’s side of the story, see Hasani Gittens and Brad Hamilton, “Crash-Ferry Capt. Suing for His Job”, New York Post, Dec. 4 (alleging that he “cooperated with investigators” after the crash).
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