Officers aboard Cosco Busan when it collided into a San Francisco Bridge languish in an a Los Angeles apartment, detained as material witnesses on a US$50 a day food allowance, waiting for the day they give evidence for the trial of the ship's pilot, reports New York's Maritime Advocate.

Bay area governments fined the owner and operators of the 5,450-TEU Cosco Busan US$44.4 million for polluting California waters with a 53,000-gallon oil spill after the ship hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007.

"True, they are living in a reasonable apartment, they have been allowed to visit the local Chinatown and museums, almost certainly under the watchful eye of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service or spooks from the Department of Homeland Security," said the report.

They have not been charged but are witnesses in involving Cosco Busan pilot John Cota who was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, said the report. There is a lawsuit against the pharmacist who provided the prescription drugs that incapacitated the pilot.

"At the moment they are receiving their salaries from their company, Hong Kong's Fleet Management Ltd, which was fined US$10 million. But wages stop on May 31, said the report. They've lost their jobs on the Cosco Busan and can't find replacement employment because of their detention," said the report.

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News