One Dead, Two Missing After Tug Accident

A tugboat crew member died and two were missing on Saturday after the vessel collided with a barge and sank in the Hudson River under the Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City, authorities said.

News ID: 62985

Date: 14 March 2016 - 11:48

According to MANA, A tugboat crew member died and two were missing on Saturday after the vessel collided with a barge and sank in the Hudson River under the Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City, authorities said.
The pre-dawn accident involved a 84-foot tug with three people on board that struck a construction barge moored under the bridge, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. He said one crew member died in the incident.
The U.S. Coast Guard on Saturday night said that after 12 hours of looking, they had suspended the active search for the two missing crew members.The vessel’s captain Paul Amon, 52, of Bayville, New Jersey was pulled from the river and pronounced dead.
“The suspension of an active search and rescue case without definitive resolution is a very difficult decision to make,” said Rodger Krass, Sector New York search and rescue mission coordinator. “There were many assets from various agencies searching by air and by sea but, pending further developments, we have decided to suspend the active search. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families.”
Cuomo said the state's Department of Environmental Conservation and a private contractor would work to contain as much as 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaking from the sunken tug. The fuel leak created a slick some 300 feet (91 meters) wide and five miles (eight km) long, he said.
Barges are moored near the bridge as part of the construction of a new span connecting New York's Rockland and Westchester counties. Cuomo said there were 21 workers on the construction barge at the time of the collision, but none were injured.
In July 2013, a speedboat carrying six members of a wedding party smashed into a barge anchored below the span, a major transportation link in the city's northern suburbs. Two people were killed, including the bride-to-be and the best man.