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City of Toronto tried to downplay accident of the Thomas Rennie hitting Billy Bishop airport

On April 30, 2024, the 'Thomas Rennie' hit the Billy Bishop airport near the runway. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information were revealing the captain was piloting the vessel so poorly he was relieved of command by his crew. The ferry was out of commission for 61 days following the incident for repairs which cost $500,000. Toronto Harbour was cloaked in fog on April 30 at 10.20 p.m, when the ferry left the Jack Layton terminal, destined for Hanlan’s Point with six passengers and 11 crew members on board. Additional lookouts had been posted on the vessel, due to reduced visibility. 15 minutes later, after breaching the marine exclusion zone meant to keep planes from hitting boats in the harbour, the ship allided with airport property. The accident and how it seems to have been handled, pointed to problems at the city with collecting and reporting information related to ferry accidents, both internally and in communications with other agencies and the public. The accident at the airport went unreported to the public. As late as Sep 2024, PortsToronto did not receive notice of the incident or a report from TSB (Transportation Safety Board), and were not notified by the City of Toronto of the incident. The operator of the ferry is required to report incidents to the TSB. The documents revealed that Captain Saqib Irfan may have been having trouble navigating in the fog earlier that night. About an hour before the accident at the airport, on a trip to Centre Island, he mistakenly steered the vessel towards the Toronto Island Marina, according to a report filed by eyewitness Christopher Fernandes, the second-in-command that night. The Toronto Island Marina is in a bay to the east of the ferry docks on Centre Island. It is not equipped to handle vessels the size of the Rennie. The ship would have run aground at the marina. On a separate trip to Hanlan’s Point about an hour later, Irfan accidentally steered the ferry into the marine exclusion zone (MEZ) around the airport, a fact confirmed by Fernandes and Irfan in their incident reports to the city. The airport was not in operation when the 'Thomas Rennie' entered the MEZ. Irfan reported that he struck the seaplane ramp at the airport. His mate Fernandes said in his incident report that the ship struck the airport runway and then ran aground near Mugg’s Island. The investigation by the TSB, based on GPS data, reported that the ferry hit a point roughly to the northeast of the airport runway, not near the seaplane ramp. E-mail exchanges between city officials reveal managers trying to figure out exactly what happened the day after the accident, which former waterfront parks manager James Dann had initially described in internal communications as a hard docking. Irfan said in his report that the fog was so heavy, visibility was zero and he couldn’t see navigational lights or get a clear picture on radar, causing him to drift towards the seaplane ramp. He included in his report a picture of the CN Tower that night, obscured by dense fog except for the main pod and antenna. In his report to the city, Fernandes said that Irfan “struck the airport runaway (sic),” and then “headed for the marina at Mugg Island on the other side of Hanlan Point". “When I repeatedly asked (Irfan) to give me command since he was grounding the vessel, he refused until the vessel was aground 5-10 feet from the eastern part of the wall at Muggs Island approaching the marina. Finally after…other crew strongly recommended to give me the control and take us back safely, Capt. Irfan agreed to give me command of the vessel to take her back to JLFT. After taking command, I slowly pulled the vessel out from being aground … I had to do it meticulously because of the damage done to the vessel. The vessel was then brought back at reduced speed.” Fernandes wrote in his report he docked the vessel just after 11 p.m. Irfan’s report makes no mention of grounding at Mugg’s or Fernandes taking over. A string of e-mails between city officials reveals yet another possible scenario for what happened that night — that the ferry hit some rocks near the airport — an explanation that is not supported by witness reports, but was proposed as an explanation to media enquiring about the accident.