A judge has determined that a Chief Officer who was on sole watch on the bridge of a bulker was probably listening to clips on his mobile phone moments before colliding with another vessel off the Greek coast.
Two vessels, KIVELI and AFINA I collided off the southern coast of Greece on 31 March 2021. They were meant to pass each other safely on their starboard sides, but KIVELI turned to port instead, hitting AFINA I at a near right angle. The collision caused flooding and the ships remained stuck together for days during recovery efforts.
The Admiralty Court has now has ruled that the watchkeeper was distracted by his phone before collision. Recordings captured the sounds similar to a child laughing from a video clip, another video-like clip of a baby and mother playing was recorded the moments leading up to the collision, court documents detail.
The person on watch at the time, didn’t admit to having a phone or media device on the bridge, which would have been against the ship’s rules. Instead, he tried to blame another officer, even though the timeline made that explanation very unlikely.
Furthermore, the Chief Officer gave conflicting stories according to the ruling, which seemed to be attempts to avoid admitting he broke the ship’s rules. Furthermore, he failed to act properly when another officer was allegedly using a phone on the bridge.
Beyond this, he gave other misleading or false statements, such as claiming he saw nearby ships on his equipment when he didn’t, or pretending he didn’t know how some of the ship’s systems worked.
According to the court documents, the microphones also recorded singing softly just minutes before the collision. When asked about it he gave different reasons, saying he was worried, then saying he thought the danger had already passed.
This singing, along with his delayed response to radio calls, showed that he wasn’t fully aware of the danger. When he finally responded, he made the wrong decision by turning the ship to the left (port), directly against warnings from the other vessel’s officer.
The watchkeeper however did make some honest or revealing admissions. He admitted he sometimes ignored collision-avoidance rules and that he didn’t track either of the approaching vessels on one of his key systems (ECDIS).
Adding to that, court documents support that he was willing to pass other ships very closely, even in unsafe, rule-breaking ways and admitted that turning left before the collision was breaching the rules.
