Records of vessel that crashed into bridge may have been tampered with

Damage to the ship

The records of the MT Tradewind Passion which crashed into the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) earlier this month may have been tampered with, according to the findings of the Board of Inquiry.

“Major inconsistencies were found with the pilot and master of exchange of information as (the) bell book had entries of such information as well as the preparation of a pilot card but the pilot did not sign such a card. This suggests tampering of ship’s records subsequent to the allision (the running of one ship upon another ship that is stationary),” the report stated.

In addition, the ship‘s bell book records for October 8, 2022 varies from the VDR hardware which was retrieved from the ship’s bridge. According to the report, the crew members initially refused to hand over information to members of the Board, however, when they decided to cooperate it was found that a scrap book was kept on board the ship during transit which was later transcribed into the bell book.