The Nautical Institute draws lessons learned, as edited from Rostransnadzor report 01/2016, from an incident where a crew member was killed after deviating from agreed procedures during a wire rope towline recovery operation.
A tug assisted a tanker with a wire rope towline, and then went to anchor nearby in order to heave in the heavy line. This wire rope towline was not connected to the tug’s towing winch aft, and it was decided to haul it in using the gypsy-head of the anchor windlass. The rigging went through the stern fairlead and along the starboard side of the tug to the windlass.
A polypropylene mooring line was attached to the wire rope towing line as a pulling hawser. A step-by-step transfer manoeuvre was employed to heave in the wire rope towline. Crew were stationed fore and aft to monitor the operation.
Crew member A was stationed between the two positions so he could assist at either end. At one point when transferring the pulling hawser, when there was no tension on the rope, crew member A put the pulling hawser outboard of the starboard bitt. Another crew member remarked that it was dangerous to have this line outboard of the bitt and he brought it back to the inboard position.
As the tension was brought on the pulling hawser there was a loud sound and pulling was stopped at the windlass. Crew member A was found pinned against the tug’s superstructure by the pulling hawser. Unknown to the other crew, who did not have a line of sight to the victim, crew member A had repositioned the pulling hawser back outboard of the bitt. When it came under tension, the pulling hawser slipped off the top of the bitt with accumulated energy and trapped crew member A against the superstructure.
First aid was administered and the victim quickly evacuated ashore. He was later declared deceased due to serious internal injuries.
The report enumerated an exhaustive list of labour regulations that crew member A had apparently breached.
Lessons learned
- Although the accident investigation was diligent in documenting the accident facts, the analysis is a litany of ‘blame the victim’. The victim certainly acted against an agreed procedure by placing the pulling hawser outboard of the bitt, but what about the lack of supervision that allowed this dangerous act?
- The agreed procedure was that no one should be located on the starboard side next to the pulling hawser – yet crew member A was there, to everyone’s knowledge, until his untimely accident. Again, what of the supervision?
- Why wasn’t the tug’s towing winch used for this operation – a safe and straightforward method to recover the towline. The report is silent on this matter and on the dangerous improvised method used.
