Collision of Heavy Lift Vessel Hawk with Unnamed Barge and Destroyer Delbert D Black

What Happened

At 1012 local time on March 29, 2019, while under way and attempting to turn, the heavy lift vessel Hawk and its oversized cargo - a floating drydock - collided with an electrical testing barge and the destroyer Delbert D Black, which were moored at the Ingalls Shipbuilding complex on the Pascagoula River in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Shipyard workers on the destroyer at the time of the accident reported minor injuries. Fifteen gallons of non-PCB mineral oil from electrical transistors on the barge were discharged into the river. Damage to the floating drydock, barge, destroyer, and the Ingalls pier was estimated at $15-$20 million.

What We Found

​​​​The probable cause of the collision of the heavy lift vessel Hawk with a docked barge and the destroyer Delbert D Black​ was the speed at which the conning pilot was operating the Hawk while attempting to turn and anchor in a shipyard basin.

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