BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer
The New York City Department of Transportation has fired Michael J. Gansas, captain of the ill-fated Staten Island Ferry Andrew J. Barberi.
City DOT officials charged Gansas with failure to cooperate with National Transportation Safety Board and city investigations into the Oct. 15 crash that killed 10 people and injured 70.
Gansas and the pilot of the ferry, Assistant Capt. Richard Smith, had both been suspended without pay because they had been uncooperative with the investigation into the accident, the DOT said.
Gansas repeatedly refused to testify about the accident and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
Gansas provided only his name and age and refused to answer any other questions at his Nov. 6 appearance before the federal National Transportation Safety Board.
Stephen J. Sheinbaum, his lawyer, has said his client is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and is under a doctor’s care.
Sheinbaum could not be reached for comment about Gansas’ firing, despite many attempts to reach him.
A DOT labor relations specialist upheld the agency’s recommendation for termination after a hearing last week at DOT headquarters.
Two of those killed in the accident, John P. Healy, 44, and Frank R. Sullivan, 46, were Middletown residents.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York took over the investigation from the NTSB.
U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf has vowed to get "full and truthful answers" to determine what happened when the Barberi slammed full speed into a pier on the Staten Island side.
The city DOT last month hired a federal maritime transportation group to review all existing ferry operations.