Sat, 02/07/2009 - 04:24

As part of their investigation into the fatal sinking of the fishing vessel Katmai last October, the U.S. Coast Guard enlisted DIT to test one of the recovered life rafts.

The Coast Guard towed the life raft to DIT on February 2, 2009, where the National Transportation Safety Board laid it out for examination. The Coast Guard then worked jointly with DIT to identify the appropriate fittings needed to connect an air hose to the life raft in preparation for an inflation test.

The inflation test was conducted February 3, to determine the integrity of the life raft's buoyancy chambers, which will help investigators in determining whether the life raft inflated properly when it was deployed.

For more on this story, see the article, "Raft inflates, but questions persist in deadly sinking," by Seattle P-I reporter Hector Castro.