Tag: accident reports

Ship owners have cut their spending on safety As the world's shipping market slumped to its lowest point this year, ship owners have cut their spending on safety, resulting in a growing number of maritime accidents in recent months, maritime officials said.The Maritime Safety Administration has launched a three-month campaign to improve safety by checking crew numbers and qualifications on all domestic cargo and passenger ships with 5,000 gross tonnage or less, beginning on April 16.Huang He, deputy director of the administration, said the move followed an unusually high number of accidents involving ships in coastal waters or offshore since February.Two of the accidents happened in a period of three days, between Feb 16 and 18, near Shantou, in Guangdong province, and Quanzhou, in Fujian province. Eight people were killed and five were reported missing."Our investigations found that both ships lacked even the minimum number of crew members, and some of the sailors had no qualifications for their current jobs," he said.The situation was not limited to a number of individual cases, he said, adding that it appeared to be widespread.An administration official said that some small ship owners had fired sailors, and as a result, the ships did not ...

Three people are still missing At least 10 people have been killed and three people are still missing in ferry accident that occurred on a ferry running from the port city of Pathein, 130km west of Yangon.State media reported that the "Pathein Thu" sank at around 2 pm on Tuesday as it was about to dock at a jetty near Ngapudaw Township. It had just completed the 30 km journey from Pathein Township on the Pathein River, which lies around 135 km west of Rangoon.The cause of the accident is still being investigated but there are accusations that rough conditions and overcrowding could have been to blame.A senior police spokesman from Ngapudaw Township told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that at least five women and one child were amongst the dead."The police are continuing to search for survivors and have been joined by volunteers from the public," he said. "There was a big wave at the time so the flow of water was very strong. When the ferry stopped suddenly and turned to approached the jetty the wave hit so it lost control."There were around 100 passengers on board and residents of Ngapudaw Township claimed that this meant the vessel was ...

The Captain dozed off with the ship on autopilot Interrogation has shown that the captain of a 130-metre cargo ship that hit rocks in Messina at the weekend dozed off with the ship on autopilot.Under interrogation by magistrates, the commander of the Hc Rubina - 41-year-old Ukrainian Sergy Kryvodud - said he only awoke when the vessel was too close to shore to avoid a collision.The ship is grounded, yards from people's homes, in the port's Ganzirri district. Warnings from the coast guard, which detected the ship's approach on Saturday night, were initially ignored. When Mr Kryvodud woke there was only time to slow the ship and reduce the impact. He is suspected by prosecutors of causing a shipwreck and violating marine law.Source: The Indipendent

More than 100 people are still missing from the MV Rabaul Queen Papua New Guinean authorities Saturday began retrieving the bodies of those killed when a crowded ferry sank two days ago in what is thought to be among the nation's worst sea accidents.More than 100 people are still missing from the MV Rabaul Queen, which went down about nine nautical miles off the coast early Thursday. Air and sea search efforts were ongoing despite rough weather."Four bodies were picked up from the water," rescue coordinator Captain Nurur Rahman from PNG's National Maritime Safety Authority told AFP."The water at this time is still rough which is slowing down a little bit the search and rescue. We haven't found any survivors today."Rahman said the bodies were discovered, along with debris from the wreck, about 50 nautical miles southeast of where the vessel sank.The authority said the 246 people rescued in a joint rescue operation with neighbouring Australia were undergoing medical assessment at the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, a major coastal gateway and the doomed boat's destination.As the search effort involving seven fixed wing aircraft, three helicopters and seven boats continued, some families in Lae were still hoping to find their ...

116 survivors from the ferry Rabaul Queen Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President: Koichi Muto) announced that the MOL-operated containership MOL Summer rescued 116 survivors from the ferry Rabaul Queen, which sank about 17 km east of Papua New Guinea.According to local reports, the Rabaul Queen with about 350 passengers aboard was under way from the port of Kimbe on New Britain Island to Lae in Papua New Guinea.On the morning of Thursday, February 2, the Rabaul Queen sank near Fischhafen, shortly after transmitting a distress signal, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).The MOL Summer, under way from Hong Kong to Brisbane, was dispatched by AMSA to serve as on-scene coordinator for the rescue operation, and pulled 116 survivors from the water, transferring them to AMSA at Lae early on Friday (JST).Meanwhile, eight other merchant vessels near the scene helped with rescue activities at the request of AMSA. In all, five vessels, including the MOL Summer, rescued a total of 246 people.MOL hopes the remaining passengers and crew from the Rabaul Queen will be swiftly rescued and brought to safety.Source: Mitsui O.S.K. Lines

Common methodology for investigating marine casualties and incidents Commission Regulation (No 1286/2011), adopted on 9 December 2011, lays down a common methodology for investigating marine casualties and incidents pursuant to Directive 2009/18/EC.To recall, the Accident Investigation Directive 2009/18/EC formed part of Europe's Third Maritime Safety Package. It established the principles of accident investigation and supplemented the IMO rules with provisions that require Member States to appoint independent investigative bodies to investigate all marine incidents.In order to provide common standards applicable to all investigations, the investigative body of the leading Member State should follow a common methodology when investigating marine casualties and incidents.The Commission, with the help of the Committee of Safe Seas (COSS) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), has now come forward with this set of legal requirements spelling out the common methodology, which is binding and directly applicable to all Member States.In particular, the Regulation lays down provisions regarding the following.Operational readiness Each investigative body should have a preparedness plan in place to ensure that resources and procedures are immediately available in case of accidents.Initial assessment and response Upon receiving notification of an accident, the investigative body should carry out an initial assessment of the overall event. ...

Maintenance of the wires had been hindered by the design of the davit Poor maintenance and a design flaw have been blamed for the death of a cruise ship worker who plunged into the water and drowned while working on a lifeboat in Lyttelton this year.The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) launched an investigation after two men fell from the cruise ship Volendam while carrying out routine maintenance on a starboard lifeboat in January.One of the men was rescued shortly afterward. The other man was seen in the water briefly in what appeared to be a dazed state, but he soon disappeared.He could not be found despite a search by the ship's rescue vessel, Coastguard, the port authority and emergency services.Port authority divers found the man's body about four hours later.The TAIC report, released today, found that the men fell from the lifeboat after one of the two wires attaching it to the ship failed.The men were wearing safety harnesses but the wire holding the harnesses to the ship also failed during the accident.Neither man was wearing a buoyancy device.The lifeboat remained attached to the ship by the aft wire but suffered irreparable damage.The accident also caused damage to the ...

DMA issues casualty report about accident to a seafarer The Division for Investigation of Maritime Accidents/Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board has published a report about accident to a seafarer.While preparing for departure a ship's assistant fell from the gangway. The lifting wire to the gangway got stuck in one of the stanchions and in an attempt to loosen it the ship's assistant fell approximate 5 metres to the pier. The Casualty Report can be read here.Source: Danish Maritime Authority

A formal approach to accident and injury prevention onboard A component of The Ship Safety Suite, The Program of Shipboard Safety offers a formal approach to accident and injury prevention that applies to all crew personnel as well as to vendors and subcontractors working aboard the vessel, and to shipyard and office personnel. The program explains procedures for identifying hazards and managing risks and delineates a formal chain of accountability that assigns everyone a role in eliminating accidents and injuries. It stresses the importance of overlapping layers of responsibility for accident and injury prevention and outlines defined responsibilities for personnel involved in the work task. The program proposes guidelines for managing the task, and for near miss reporting, hazards and risks, job hazard analysis, permits to work and auditing

Count of misconduct of a ship operator causing death Matthew R. Devlin was charged today in an information with one count of misconduct of a ship operator causing death, in relation to the "Duck boat" accident on the Delaware River on July 7, 2010, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger and Special Agent-in-Charge William P. Hicks, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service.In this accident, the barge The Resource, which was towed by the towing vessel M/V Caribbean Sea piloted by defendant Devlin, ran over a boat operated by the tourism company Ride the Ducks International LLC. As a result, two passengers on the Duck boat who were visiting from Hungary, Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16, were killed.Devlin, 35, of Catskill, New York, was charged under a federal criminal statute (Section 1115 of Title 18 of the United States Code) applicable to involuntary manslaughter committed by the operator of a vessel.The information alleges that "for an extended period of time prior to the collision, was distracted by his use of a cell phone and a laptop computer to attend to personal matters; elected to pilot the Caribbean Sea from its lower wheelhouse, where he had significantly reduced visibility in ...