The former lover of the crew member charged in the Queen of the North ferry sinking has testified she was ordered to switch the ship off autopilot right before it crashed but she didn’t know how.
Karen Briker was the only other person on the bridge with Karl Lilgert when the B.C. ferry ran off course near Gil Island in 2006. Two passengers died.
Lilgert, the navigation officer, is charged with criminal negligence causing death.
Bricker testified that she was working as a quartermaster and that Lilgert was in control of the ship.
She said he gave her an order to make a course change, which she initially questioned.
Briker told the court she eventually agreed to the order but can’t remember if she followed it or not, right before seeing treetops out of the bridge window.
She recalled going to get the captain and then hearing Lilgert apologize: “I’m sorry, I'm sorry. I was trying to go around a fishing boat, we hit a squall."
Briker said she was "messed up" at that point and testified that another crew member put his finger in her face and told her to “get her shit together.”
The ferry worker told the court she was afraid of getting into the life raft because people would know where she came from, and she felt she’d caused the accident because she didn’t know how to turn off the autopilot.
Briker testified she and Lilgert had a sexual affair while they were both in other relationships, from about Sept. 2005 to early Mar 2006.
