Slip-up lets tankers enter strait together

VALDEZ, Alaska, July 26 (UPI) -- In a Coast Guard slip-up, two large tankers were allowed to enter a narrow passage off Alaska at the same time.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that both ships got through the Valdez Narrows without mishap.

The incident on July 10 involved the SeaRiver Baytown, an Exxon Mobil tanker, and the Polar Adventure, carrying oil for Conoco Phillips. Both had just filled up at Valdez.

The Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Center in Valdez gave the SeaRiver Baytown permission to proceed into the Narrows and then 25 minutes later gave the second ship the same clearance. While both boats were in the passage at the same time, they were always at least a mile apart.

Stan Jones, spokesman for the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council, said his group is concerned by how the Coast Guard could make such a mistake and why the crews of the tankers and their tugboat escorts did not notice something was amiss.