The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued an investigation report into breakaway occurrences involving OOCL Brisbane and CMA CGM Bellini at the Port of Brisbane, Queensland, on 16 May and 20 May 2022.
What happened
In the early weeks of May 2022, areas of south-eastern Queensland, including catchments of the Brisbane River, experienced heavy rainfall that resulted in a series of controlled dam water releases upriver from the Port of Brisbane. The high freshwater inflows into the river caused increased current speeds through the port, exposing ships to the risk of breaking free from their berths.
On 16 May 2022, the container ship OOCL Brisbane broke away from its berth at Fisherman Islands after its mooring lines parted. This occurred immediately after another ship, Delos Wave, passed in the adjacent channel and maneuvered to the berth ahead of it.
Four days later, another container ship, CMA CGM Bellini, was alongside a berth at Fisherman Islands when two of its forward mooring lines parted and its bow drifted off the berth. As with the breakaway on 16 May, another ship, APL Scotland, had just passed and berthed ahead of CMA CGM Bellini.
Contributing factors
- Heavy rainfall resulted in significant freshwater inflows into the Brisbane River, including several controlled releases from dams upstream from the Port of Brisbane. The inflows caused strong ebb currents through the port, increasing the loads on mooring arrangements for ships berthed at Fisherman Islands.
- The combined effects of high ebb current speeds and interaction forces introduced by Delos Wave and APL Scotland when passing and maneuvering ahead of OOCL Brisbane and CMA CGM Bellini, respectively, resulted in the berthed ships’ mooring arrangement limits being exceeded.
- Maritime Safety Queensland and Poseidon Sea Pilots did not have a process to jointly and effectively identify and risk assess hazards to shipping and pilotage that were outside normal environmental conditions.
