Captain of grounded vessel off Waikiki left bridge unattended, lawsuit says

The federal government says the captain of the Pacific Paradise had the engine turned off, then went below deck, leaving the bridge unattended, several hours before the 79-foot commercial fishing vessel ran aground in shallow waters off Kaimana Beach.

The government is suing Pacific Paradise’s owner, TWOL LLC, and company officers Nguyen Ngoc Tran and Loi Chi Hang for the $1,657,368 it says it cost to remove the threat of fuel discharge from the vessel. According to a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Tran was also captain of the Pacific Paradise when it ran aground in October 2017.

The Pacific Paradise arrived 3 nautical miles outside Honolulu Harbor at about 4:24 p.m. Oct. 10, 2017, but wasn’t cleared to enter the port until 9 a.m. the next morning, the government says. So Tran had his vessel go back and forth in the ocean off Oahu’s southern shore before deciding to just stop it in place.

The vessel drifted and grounded on the reef off Kaimana Beach at about 9:19 p.m. with 4,500 gallons of diesel fuel and 20 people, including Tran, on board. No one was injured in the grounding.

Four days later a contractor who was attempting to float the partially sunken vessel off the reef started a fire on board while refueling a dewatering pump. By then all but 1,500 gallons of the vessel’s diesel fuel had been removed. The fire burned through the vessel for days, damaging it and making its removal more difficult. Another contractor was able to float the Pacific Paradise and tow it out to a disposal site Dec. 7, 2017.

The U.S. Coast Guard determined in October 2018 that Tran operated the Pacific Paradise in a negligent manner, and recommended a $5,000 fine. The Coast Guard Hearing Office sent a letter to Tran advising him of his right to dispute the penalty and findings.

Tran did not respond.

The CG Hearing Office sent Tran another letter in December, then adopted the findings and penalty after Tran again failed to respond.

The lawyer for TWOL did not respond to a request for comment.

TWOL is a business registered in Hawaii. The Pacific Paradise sailed from American Samoa to transfer 16 of its 19 foreign national crew members to a longline fishing vessel in Honolulu Harbor. The grounding left the crew in limbo because only Tran could legally step foot on U.S. soil. The rest did not have authorization to enter the country and were confined to boats while docked in Honolulu.