A Houston pilot steering the 656-foot bulk carrier Yangze 7 was on a 39-minute personal phone call moments before the ship slammed into the towboat Miss Peggy on the Houston Ship Channel in July 2024, according to newly released federal investigative findings. The towboat capsized almost immediately after being struck from astern, and one deckhand working in the galley was found dead inside the wreckage.
The National Transportation Safety Board detailed the call's contents in a report examined by ABC13 Houston, which found that the pilot's conversation with another pilot covered personal topics including local golfing, home generator financing, travel to France, and office logistics. Audio pulled from the Yangze 7's Voyage Data Recorder showed the call ended just two minutes and 16 seconds before the collision, according to Seatrade Maritime News.
Four crew members aboard the Miss Peggy were pulled from the water by a Good Samaritan vessel, with one requiring an intensive care stay, per the same account from Seatrade Maritime News. The collision happened near Lynchburg, Texas, on July 19, 2024, and left the towboat's captain unaware of the approaching bulk carrier until it was nearly on top of them.
Bridge Crew Was Too Afraid to Speak Up
Investigative records reviewed by gCaptain revealed that an officer on the Yangze 7's bridge told investigators he was “very afraid” watching the pilot chat through a Bluetooth earpiece while still issuing helm orders, yet the bridge team never intervened. The NTSB found that the towboat's captain also failed to maintain a proper lookout, and that neither the captain nor the pilot were aware of their surroundings in the moments before impact, according to ABC13's reporting on the report's findings. The bridge team reportedly did not spot the Miss Peggy until it was less than a ship's length away, per gCaptain.
ABC13 also reported that the Yangze 7 crew knew the call was non-operational and heard it happening, but none of them said anything about it at the time. The Houston Ship Channel is one of the busiest waterways in the country, and the dense industrial traffic there leaves little room for error, a hazard the NTSB has flagged before.
A Channel With a History of Costly Collisions
This is not the first time the Houston Ship Channel has seen a high-consequence marine accident. The NTSB previously documented a May 2019 collision involving the LPG tanker Genesis River that spilled over 473,000 gallons of petrochemicals and shut down channel navigation for two days, an incident Hoodline covered at the time in an earlier ship channel oil spill.
Total financial damages from the 2024 Yangze 7 and Miss Peggy collision, including salvage of the capsized towboat and oil pollution cleanup, were estimated at $3.7 million, according to the NTSB. The Yangze 7 itself suffered no damage, and the Coast Guard designated the crash a major marine casualty. For a vessel the size of the Yangze 7, a five-hour transit through the channel commands roughly $15,000 in pilotage fees under 2026 tariff rates, or several thousand dollars an hour, according to the Maritime Executive.
Federal Regulators Push for a Ban on Personal Calls
In its report released Thursday, the NTSB said personal electronic device distraction has been identified as a contributing factor or probable cause in at least 10 marine casualties between 2009 and 2024, resulting in three deaths and 45 injuries nationwide. The board issued formal safety recommendations urging the Coast Guard to prohibit non-operational electronic device use by anyone directing vessel movements in U.S. waters, and called on the American Pilots' Association to adopt binding anti-distraction policies.
The American Pilots' Association responded with a statement acknowledging that the pilot's performance fell short of industry standards and pledging to work with federal regulators to eliminate distracted navigation, according to Marine Link. NTSB investigators, per ABC13, recommended that the Coast Guard and the pilots' association establish guidance specifically prohibiting nonoperational phone use on the water.
Family Pursues Wrongful Death Claim
Attorneys representing the family of the deceased deckhand filed an admiralty and maritime wrongful death lawsuit in Harris County, alleging negligence and unseaworthiness against the owners of both the Miss Peggy and the Yangze 7, according to Doyle Dennis Avery LLP. Maritime law allows families to pursue damages in cases involving gross negligence and unseaworthy vessel operations.
Justin Warner, an attorney connected to the case with Zehl Law and Associates, told ABC13 that people operating vessels need full attention, constant bridge-team communication, and monitoring of navigational equipment. Warner said companies should prohibit captains and pilots from making non-operational, non-work-related calls while navigating vessels, arguing that even brief lapses in attention can prove catastrophic on a waterway as congested as the Houston Ship Channel.
