at approximately 9:00 a.m. on may 8, 2010, "andrew j. barberi" left manhattan on her regularly scheduled crossing to the staten island terminal. the weather was calm with light winds, good visibility, and an ebbing tide. aboard the vessel were 244 passengers, 18 crewmembers, 2 nypd officers, and 2 concessionaires. as per standard procedure, both the captain and assistant captain were present in the staten island-end pilothouse. at 9:16, as "andrew j. barberi" was passing the kill van kull buoy, the assistant captain began to reduce engine rpm and pitch in preparation for docking. the vessel initially responded as commanded, with ais data indicating that the vessel had reduced speed slightly. because "andrew j. barberi" was not equipped with a voyage data recorder at the time of the collision, it is impossible to determine exactly when the vessel failed to respond to the assistant captain's commands.