No training for quartermaster on autopilot system, ferry trial hears

VANCOUVER – The former lover of a crew member charged in a fatal ferry sinking off B.C. says she was never trained to switch the autopilot system on or off, but she says she that wasn’t required.

Karen Briker told Karl Lilgert’s B.C. Supreme Court trial that she was alone on the bridge of the Queen of the North with Lilgert the night the ship hit an island and sank.

Briker has already told the court that as the ferry approached an island, Lilgert told her to switch off the autopilot as he took the wheel, but she didn’t know how to do that.

As a quartermaster, Briker says she was never trained how to operate the autopilot switch, because that would always be performed by the officer navigating the ship.

The ferry had recently returned from upgrades, including changes to its autopilot system, and the sailing was Briker’s first time on the bridge of that ship in almost a year.

Lilgert is accused of criminal negligence causing the deaths of two passengers who went missing after the ship sank and are presumed drowned.