There are three investigative reports that exist outside of the judicial investigation and these have been commissioned on behalf of the family, the company and the insurer where each investigation included a visit to the ship. 

OOCL totally incorrectly refers to a Hong Kong Government Marine Dept (HKMD) investigation as if to refer to some independent state government investigation. The family have flown to Hong Kong and met the HKMD and they have admitted the following:

1. They never visited the ship OOCL Montreal to investigate the incident.
2. They never carried out an investigation as they did not deem this incident as a "maritime accident."
3. To enable an investigation a Hong Kong minister has to authorise it. This has never happened.
4. They merely produced a paper that summarised OOCL and the Insurers report.

The fact that OOCL continue to refer to this undermines their own position.

The only available investigative reports are as folllows:

The Cooper Report was commissioned by the family as independent expert to establish the possible faults.  

David A. Cooper has been in the lift and escalator industry since 1980. He apprenticed with British Railways working on lifts, escalators, and other equipment. He is currently the managing director of LECS (UK) Ltd, a consulting firm specializing in vertical transportation systems.

From 1985 to 1988 he worked for Kone Lifts as a service engineer. Mr. Cooper is a past chairman of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Lift Group Committee and was appointed the UK coordinator of The International Association of Elevator Engineers in 1996. Other organizations include membership in the Council of Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers and a former membership to the executive council and board of directors of The Institute of Incorporated Executive Engineers (IIExE) He represents the IIE on the British Standards Institute MHE/4 committee for lifts.  

The Gordon Marine report commissioned by OOCL looked into what could not have happened rather than trying to establish what did happen and obviously as the report was commissioned by OOCL with a narrow remit and limited scope it is open to question with regard to its objectivity. The report finishes with a "We dont know what happened" conclusion. Neither could they find any techncial fault with the lift system.

Gordon Marine are general marine engineers and not lift experts nor lift accident reconstruction specialists which is obviously a complex area.

The Tetreault Report was commissioned by the Northern P&I Club which as the insurer of the ship had an interest in protecting their liability position. Again the report is of limited scope and fails to attack what caused the accident and funnily enough delivers a "We dont know what happened" conclusion. Neither could he find any technical fault on the lift system.

Tetreault is a general marine surveyor and not a lift expert nor lift accident reconstruction specialist.