Metro

Crashing start

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(ron romano)

The officer in charge of the Staten Island Ferry’s Andrew J. Barberi had just started his second day as a captain when his boat crashed into a pier Saturday — and it was the first time he’d worked with the assistant captain, investigators said yesterday.

Capt. Donald Russell, 27, and Assistant Capt. Maqbool Ahmed, 47, nonetheless worked quickly together to avert a worse disaster, and both had plenty of experience, having docked the ferry at the St. George Terminal “thousands” of times, officials said.

Both Russell and Ahmed, who was at the controls for the failed docking, were fully alert in the moments leading up to the crash, and realized they were in trouble when the ship’s engine failed to slow, said National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt.

“It was obvious to them that they were coming in faster than normal,” said Sumwalt. “The crew did act promptly. It didn’t appear that anyone panicked.”

Sumwalt also pointed out that surveillance video footage proved neither Russell nor Ahmed were using cellphones, texting or doing anything else that might have distracted them from their jobs.

Sumwalt said that up to the point where Russell and Ahmed tried to cut the Barberi’s speed, the diesel engine seemed to be working normally.

At a news conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg flatly blamed the crash on “plain and simple” mechanical failure.

“The captain sounded the ferry signal in warning, and the crew was able to move passengers further away” from the crash point, Bloomberg said.

Russell, a 2005 graduate of SUNY Maritime College in The Bronx, has worked on the Staten Island Ferry for five years.

He started out as a mate and was promoted to assistant captain in late 2008. He recently completed a six-week captain’s training program.

Ahmed graduated from maritime college in Pakistan in 1982. He worked in various maritime jobs in the United States for six years before taking a job on the ferry in 2004, and was promoted to assistant captain in 2008.

Thirty-five people were hospitalized in Saturday’s crash, and two injured people refused medical attention.

Dock worker Ari Vidana — who lowered a passenger ramp so it would act as a buffer between the out-of-control ship and the concrete dock at the terminal — has been credited with saving lives.

Meanwhile, a homeless man, Charles Cardi, 47, was arrested last night for threatening to blow up the ferry’s Whitehall Terminal in lower Manhattan, cops said.

Authorities closed the terminal for about 45 minutes but found nothing.

Additional reporting by Edmund DeMarche and John Doyle

perry.chiaramonte@nypost.com