Coast Guard officer faces court-martial over damaged vessel

A Coast Guard of­fi­cer who com­mand­ed a ves­sel that ran aground ap­peared be­fore a five-mem­ber mil­i­tary tri­bunal on Mon­day to an­swer four charges aris­ing from the in­ci­dent.

Sources con­firmed the in­ci­dent, which re­port­ed­ly took place on Feb­ru­ary 21, 2022, led to charges of haz­ard­ing a ship, neg­li­gent­ly caus­ing dam­age to ser­vice prop­er­ty, fail­ing to in­ves­ti­gate the in­ci­dent and sub­mit a writ­ten re­port and fail­ing to in­form his com­mand­ing of­fi­cer of the in­ci­dent.

Sources con­firmed that be­fore the court-mar­tial be­gan, the ac­cused sailor chal­lenged the de­ci­sion by ini­ti­at­ing pro­ceed­ings in the High Court in Ju­ly 2024.