Life Boats and Launching/ Recovery Systems: Lessons learned

The traditional open wooden boat has been replaced by totally enclosed boats and free fall boats while new designs of rescue boats are nowadays in use to serve rescue operations in sea. Although, industry has addressed the risks associated with launching, running, and recovering a modern ship’s lifeboat and while the design, condition and equipment have been upgraded, many mariners have been killed or injured in accidents during operation. Mostly, these accidents are result of the increased reliance on technology.

According to a UK MAIB study published in 2001, 12 people were killed and 87 injured in 123 lifeboat accidents over a 13-year period in UK. These lifeboat-related deaths were equal to the two other offshore activities that had the most fatalities; entering enclosed spaces and falls overboard. In addition a joint industry survey conducted by OCIMF,INTERTANKO and SIGTTO, in 2000 revealed that for a total number of 75 lifeboat and rescue boat accidents, none of them happened during emergency but all of them occurred during Drills/Exercises, Surveys and Maintenance.

It is worth noticing that during emergencies (real incident evacuations) there is no accident for injury or death included in the survey ((Figure 1). Additionally, in three major sea accidents in the Mediterranean Sea no casualty has been identified to be caused by life boats or during their launch (Table 1)

Table 1: Major sea accidents in Mediterranean Sea since 2000

In OCIMF’s and MAIB’s surveys, the identified causes of lifeboats’ accidents are commonly recognized as follows:

• Equipment Failure
• Lack of proper Maintenance in Accordance with Instructions
• Failure to Follow Correct Procedure
• Lack of Proper Training
• Lack of proper communications during operation
• Design fault

Most of the above causes involve human element; this highlights the need for adequate training and supervision in order crew onboard to operate the life boat launching and recovery systems as required and implement the appropriate maintenance to boats and supportive systems.

Regarding equipment, UK MAIB study report includes a categorization of the recorded lifeboat accidents (Table 2). The additional column ‘general category’ provides connection with the findings during maintenance and inspections. Figure 2 depicts the causes of accidents in accordance with the General Category of Table 2.

Findings show that most of the accidents may have been avoided if proper maintenance and inspection had been implemented. Furthermore, the increased number of findings in some categories reveals that these components are more vulnerable to defection and failure; therefore, there is a need for increased awareness during inspections & maintenance.

Lifeboat itself is not considered as a cause to accidents. It is highly probable to have a failure during launching or recovery of a life boat, rather than during its use and sail. However, during lifeboat inspections, findings may be connected as being root causes for accidents. Specifically, hooks and release mechanisms are the most common findings due to the fact that most accidents happened during launching or hoisting the lifeboats. The second most common finding is life boat engine. In MAIB’s survey, this is one of the top three most common causes for accidents.

Figure 2: General Category Causes (Source: UK MAIB)

Table 2: Categories of the recorded lifeboat accidents (source: UK MAIB)

Best Practices

• All lifeboats and related systems should be certified in accordance with the regulations and fitted on board as appropriate.
• Both Managing company and company assigned to perform inspections in these lifeboats & systems are responsible for the appropriate inspections in regulated intervals.
• Tests and dynamic inspections to be performed as per manufacturer’s instructions.
• Fall preventers (if applicable) to be used.
• Detailed training for all aspects of lifeboats and system use to be provided on board frequently.
• Maintenance of lifeboats and related systems to be addressed as critical.
• Records for all aspects of use/training/maintenance & inspection of lifeboats and related systems to be kept in accordance with SMS.