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Article: Coast Guard Slow to Learn of Pilot's DUI
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- April 10, 2008
- Author:
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The Coast Guard didn't know for nine months about a DUI conviction against the pilot of the freighter that caused a giant oil spill in the San Francisco Bay last fall.
Under agency regulations that remain in effect, the pilot, Capt. John Cota, didn't have to disclose the February 1999 conviction until his mariner's license was up for its regular five-year renewal. That wasn't until the following November, according to testimony at a congressional hearing Thursday.
At that point Cota disclosed the conviction and surrendered his mariner's license for a short period while completing an Alcoholics Anonymous course. By January 2000 he was deemed physically fit to start piloting ...