Bosun receives fatal injuries
Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board (DMAIB) issued a Marine Accident report regardingmooring accident of container ship ATAIR J.
At noon on 3 October 2013, the Antigua & Barbuda registered container ship ATAIR J arrived in the Port of Aarhus for discharging and loading general cargo in containers. ATAIR J was in a busy schedule that included five North European ports a week.
On the day of the accident, there was a strong breeze that made it difficult to berth the ship. There-fore, it was decided to use the spring line to hold the bow in place and use the rudder and propul-sion to get the stern alongside. The spring line parted shortly after having been secured to the quay bollard. It struck the bosun who was standing in the enclosed forecastle, thus causing fatal injuries.
The flag State of ATAIR J has assisted the Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board in the investigation of this accident.
On the day of the accident, the bosun had instructed the OS operating the winch control to slowly slacken the spring line to take some of the tension of the rope. Without warning the rope parted, hit a pillar, whipped around it and hit the bosun across the chest area.
As the rope parted, it whipped back through the fairlead in its entire length. It is, however, uncertain how the parted rope travelled in order to hit the bosun. The other crewmembers on the forecastle were having their attention occupied by different tasks related to the mooring operation and did not see the actual event. Furthermore, immediately after the accident, the parted rope was used as a head line and therefore the position of the rope after the accident was uncertain.
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The accident on ATAIR J occurred because excessive tension was applied to a worn spring line, while the officers on the bridge were manoeuvring the ship in an attempt to get it alongside the berth in adverse weather conditions. The excessive tension on the spring line was the result of using the propulsion and rudder, while holding the ship with the spring line in order to get the ship alongside. It is not uncommon that mooring ropes part under different adverse circumstances such as strong winds, malfunctioning winches, strong currents and tides etc. Though the parting of the mooring rope was the determining accidental event, it is not a sufficient explanation for understanding why the normal task of mooring the ship resulted in a fatality. A determining factor for the fatality was the fact that the crewmembers were challenged by the basic design of the mooring arrangement, i.e. lack of overview, small working area and exposure to ropes under tension. In that workplace environment with changing operational circumstances, the accident occurred. Furthermore, it is inherently difficult to identify and assess the specific risk factors, while negotiat-ing these risks with the goals of everyday work – e.g. working fast to get the ship alongside in ad-verse weather conditions. This accident is an example of the difficulty encountered in assessing the risk of being hit by a broken mooring line because the bosun was standing in what was consid-ered a safe place during a normal mooring operation. Another mooring accident where the design features of the mooring deck constituted a determining factor for the consequences of a parting rope occurred on board PACHUCA, as previously refer-enced. |
Source and Image Credit: DMAIB
Further information may be found by reading DMAIB Marine Accident Report by clicking on the image below:
