Dominic Villarreal. (Courtesy of Renee Dalila Villarreal)

U.S. Coast Guard investigators are looking into the Feb. 20 death of a crew member aboard a Coast Guard cutter tied up in Ketchikan.

On Wednesday, Petty Officer First Class Nate Littlejohn identified the 20-year-old man found lifeless aboard the cutter John McCormick.

“Fireman Dominic Villarreal, age 20, was pronounced deceased after being found unresponsive aboard the vessel Sunday morning while moored in Ketchikan,” Littlejohn said.

Condolences poured in on social media. Family and friends shared their grief and sorrow.

“My soul won’t stop wailing,” aunt Renee Dalila Villarreal wrote on Facebook.

Littlejohn, the Anchorage-based Coast Guard spokesperson, says it’s currently unclear what led to Dominic Villarreal’s death. He expressed his condolences.

“The loss of a member of our Coast Guard family is tragic, and our primary concern is providing support to the John McCormick’s crew and Villareal’s family, who live in California, Maryland,” Littlejohn said.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service is leading the inquiry.

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The NTSB says a review of the radar data revealed that the plan was on a southerly track, reaching the edge of the northly land mass at 4:34 p.m. local time. The radar hits continued south at an altitude of about 1,200 ft. About four minutes later, the plane reversed course and heading north-northeast. (Image courtesy of NTSB)

The Kodiak man killed while trying to pilot his small plane from Ketchikan to the Lower 48 had apparently run out of fuel a few miles from an airport. That’s according to federal aviation investigators who on Thursday released preliminary findings of the fatal January 26 crash near Port Angeles, Washington.

Authorities haven’t named the pilot of the Cessna 170A. But the aircraft’s registration and family speaking to the Kodiak Daily Mirror identified the plane’s owner and pilot as 38-year-old Sean M. Hayes of Kodiak.

The National Transportation Safety Board says the pilot had taken off from Kodiak the day before and had stopped in Ketchikan to refuel.

It says he’d sent multiple text messages to his mother indicating strong headwinds and dense cloud cover over the inside passage. Those were slowing his progress and he was worried that the plane had enough fuel.

“The pilot stated that his estimated time of arrival kept changing on his GPS because of the fluctuating wind, turbulence and cloud avoidance,” the four-page report said.

The report says the pilot reversed course and started to slowly descend around 1,200 feet. He broadcast a mayday call around 4:40 p.m. saying he was “ditching” the aircraft and could see a boat towing a barge. The NTSB says he’d texted a photo to his mother of the area which radar records indicated was less than three miles from the closest land.

Coast Guard vessels from the U.S. and Canada used infrared cameras and radar to search for the lost plane over two days. By the end searchers scoured nearly 1,200 square miles before calling off their effort without finding the plane.

The NTSB says the pilot’s final destination was Lake Havasu, Arizona.

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This U.S. Coast Guard graphic shows a pattern flown by an aircraft searching for the missing plane. (U.S. Coast Guard via Twitter)

Authorities called off Wednesday’s search for the pilot of a missing Cessna airplane that went down near Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards helped scour more than 1,000 square miles for the small plane that had taken off from Ketchikan the day before.

A man piloting a single engine Cessna radioed for help around 4:40 p.m. local time Tuesday. He reported he was about five miles north of Port Angeles, Washington and could see the boat traffic below.

“Right in the middle — I’m out here by — there’s a boat going by. There’s a tanker getting drug. I’m out in the middle. I’m going down now. I’m going into the water,” the unnamed man called out over the radio.

Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said Wednesday morning that units were activated to help search both from the air and water.

“We also received help from our Canadian partners up north and as well as a Naval Air Station helicopter from Whidbey Island,” he said.

He says Coast Guard vessels from both nations used infrared cameras and radar to search for the lost plane over two days.

But as dusk fell Wednesday, Strohmaier says the search was called off.

“It’s very unfortunate and tragic that we have not been able to find any parts of the plane or anything in regards to the missing man,” Stromeier said Wednesday afternoon.

He added the search may resume if more information becomes available.

The Coast Guard said the aircraft was flying from Ketchikan to Port Angeles, Washington. Authorities have not released the name of the missing pilot or the Cessna’s tail number. But Strohmaier says authorities are in touch with the man’s family.

This story has been updated.

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This still from a video shot by an Ocean Ranger aboard the Seven Seas Mariner shows the Coral Princess adrift after it lost power on the evening of August 10, 2019. (Photo by Mark Farley/Ocean Ranger)

A Princess Cruise Lines ship lost all power to its engines as it was maneuvering away from Juneau’s docks last summer. The Coast Guard fined the cruise line for not immediately reporting the close call, and the agency recently discussed the case for the first time.

A state cruise ship monitor shot a series of short videos from the deck of a nearby cruise ship. The Ocean Ranger’s video and subsequent written report offer details on how the 19,600-ton Coral Princess drifted without power in Juneau’s Gastineau Channel.

The Coast Guard’s investigation found contaminated lube oil in one of the ship’s diesel generators caused it to break down as the Coral Princess was getting underway.

Coast Guard Lt. Nicholas Capuzzi was the lead investigator for the August 10, 2019 incident. He says when a generator fails, the ship’s power management system is supposed to keep the remaining generators from being overtaxed.

“One of the watch officers had neglected to properly configure the generator ahead of time,” Capuzzi told CoastAlaska on Monday.

That meant the surge in demand knocked out the ship’s second diesel generator as well.

“So both generators were offline and as an electric propulsion-driven vessel there was no longer any power to the propulsion motors,” he explained.

Steven Chouinard – an Ocean Ranger cruise ship monitor – shot this photo from the Coral Princess’ deck after it lost power and began to drift toward the Seven Seas Mariner (pictured) moored at Juneau’s AJ Dock. (Photo by Steven Chouinard/Ocean Ranger)

It was about a quarter to nine — an hour before high tide — with light winds and calm seas. Even so, without propulsion, the Coral Princess began drifting toward a smaller cruise ship, the Seven Seas Mariner, moored to an adjacent dock.

As the crew prepared to drop emergency anchor, Capuzzi says a gas-turbine generator was brought online nearly 10 minutes after the blackout took out the engines.

“And that provided enough power for them to regain propulsion,” he said. “And then they eventually brought the non damaged generator back online as well.”

The ship’s crew was required to tell the Coast Guard about the failure immediately. But that didn’t happen until 10 p.m. — more than an hour after the 8:47 p.m. blackout. By then, the ship had already departed for Skagway.

Capuzzi says the delay in reporting the mishap was a violation of regulations. Princess Cruise Lines — a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation — paid a $5,000 fine on February 14.

CoastAlaska first inquired about the incident last October. And followed up with a Freedom of Information Act request in January. But it was only this month that the federal agency agreed to speak about the findings of its investigation which it completed in January.

The records request remains unfilled by the agency’s Washington D.C. headquarters, without explanation.

Princess Cruise Lines representatives did not respond to phone or email messages seeking comment.

This story has been updated to correct a photo credit.

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One of Alaska’s original ferries is being taken out of service next month. It’ll be tied up and its crew reassigned. But marine engineers warn that without a crew keeping things shipshape, things break down quickly. And there are questions whether the Malaspina’s trip south could be its last as an Alaska ferry.

Transportation officials announced they’re it off the winter schedule for a simple reason: the 56-year-old ship needs an estimated $16 million in steel work. And the state say that’s not in the current budget.

By January 10 the ferry will be unmanned and tied up indefinitely. That means its systems are shut down, lines are drained and the equipment is secured.

There will be power on board. State ferries spokesman Sam Dapcevich says that should help prevent damage.

“We keep the vessel heated and we make sure that humidity is controlled to protect equipment from rust,” Dapcevich told CoastAlaska.

Retired ferry workers say it’s not the first time the ship has been taken out of service. In the early 1990s the state considered selling the Malaspina and tied it up in Auke Bay without power for a winter. But then the ship was needed the following the spring, so they had to restart the ship.

“When we got on board, the fuel system on the main engines was pretty much destroyed once we started running it again,” recalled former marine highway engineer George Danner, who retired in 2007.

He was in charge of maintenance on the Malaspina for most of the 1990s. He says a few years later the state decided to sideline the Malaspina again.

But engineers like Danner convinced management to assign a crew to service the Malaspina while she was tied up in Ketchikan.

“When we laid it up the second time, we knew what to do,” he said. “And therefore, we had the ability to maintain the engines. We would roll them over once a week. We’d start the generators.”

There’s no plan for that this time around. The lay up will be completely “unmanned” with no crew assigned to the ship which already needs a lot of work.

Outside experts in maritime maintenance say it’s not uncommon in the industry to temporarily shut down a ship that’s not needed.

“Essentially you are putting it on the side and you are not so much forgetting about it, but deferring any maintenance that’s required on it,” said David Satterwhite, a faculty member teaching marine engineering technology at Cal Maritime in Vallejo, California.

But Satterwhite says deferred maintenance has other costs in the long run. It’s one thing if the vessel is at the end of its service life.

“But if you’re in a situation where someday you’re going to put that back to work, then of course you’re going to want to put the manpower into — at the very minimum — keeping lights on or having a regular crew,” he said.

And then there are regulations to consider.

State ferries are inspected annually by the Coast Guard. The Malaspina’s current certificate of inspection expires in February

If a ferry’s certificate lapses while it’s out of service, a simple renewal likely won’t be an option later on, Lt. Nicholas Capuzzi, the Coast Guard’s assistant chief of inspections in Juneau, told CoastAlaska.

That means if and when the ship is brought back into service, the Malaspina would need to apply for a brand new certificate.

“Which is a deeper level of scrutiny,” Capuzzi said. “It includes stuff like operational tests of almost all the equipment on board and also depending on when the vessel was the last out of the water for inspection, it could require the vessel to be dry docked before being returned to service.”

Officially, state officials insist no long-term decision has been made about the vessel’s fate.

Veterans of the marine highway like George Danner say the state shouldn’t make decisions over its dwindling fleet that it can’t take back.

“I’ve been on two or three ships and lay up that all of a sudden something happens to another ship and they want your ship back on the line now,” Danner said. “Go ahead lay up the Mal, but put a crew on it. So when you do need it, you least have enough people there that know how to get it running and getting back in service.”

It’s not the first time in recent weeks that the state has decided to lay up a ferry rather than repair it. The ferry LeConte was abruptly taken out service after the state balked at investing $4 million in steel work for that ship. That’s left Southeast communities with fewer ferries or in some cases, no ferries at all.

All this is going on after the Dunleavy administration commissioned a $250,000 study on reshaping the marine highway.

That report by Anchorage firm Northern Economics was delivered to the transportation agency last month.

The economic consultants were retained to work with the Dunleavy administration to “identify potential reductions of the state’s financial obligation and/or liability as they relate to (the ferries).”

In other words, it’ll recommend which vessels to keep, sell or scrap.

However, those recommendations are still under wraps. CoastAlaska filed a records request for a copy of the study and was denied. State officials say the report remains in draft and its findings won’t be public until mid-December.

By then the Malaspina will have already delivered its last load of passengers, vehicles and freight.

The Malaspina was built in 1963 and is part of the original fleet of mainline ferries. Its final voyage is scheduled for December 2.

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