According to the International Maritime Pilots Association (IMPA), the ship “Grand Radiant” suffered an incident where the accommodation ladder entire outboard side railing fell away due to a pin becoming loose.
The incident
The PSC surveyors reported that the ladder is one of four 54 step ladders covered by NKK certificates issued to the manufacturing company Jiangsu Ouya Marien Outfitting.
At the top of the ladder, the collapsible handrail on each side is connected to an upright stanchion on the top platform by a short length of curved handrail, which is located by means of a drop nose pin at each end.
All axial loading applied to the handrail is transferred through the pins to the stanchion.
Probable cause
Upon examination, it became clear that the design of the pin, arranged with the drop nose ending, is not effective at preventing the pin from coming out when the handrail is vibrated transversely relative to the orientation of the ladder itself.
This was replicated on different pins on different ladders onboard the vessel so appears to be a design fault.
There is every possibility that if the ladder strikes the hull during adverse weather the resulting vibration in the handrail may be sufficient for the correctly installed pin to work its way out and for the handrail to collapse
said IMPA.
Actions taken
The vessel has been instructed to seek a permanent solution from the manufacturer of the ladder, which has to be implemented within three months.
This is in the hope that it would form part of a general product recall or similar where all ladders could be modified at the same time to remove the risk from all vessels.
Until this time the master of the ship has also been instructed to apply a suitable temporary solution to prevent the problem recurring on board”.
