Tag: incident investigation

Two-year criminal investigation into the spill using BP's internal flow-rate models On April 25, 2010, three days after the Deepwater Horizon rig sank in the Gulf of Mexico, Doug Suttles, a senior BP executive, told reporters the company's deep-sea well was leaking about 1,000 barrels of oil a day, a fraction of its maximum output."This is a long way away from something more significant," Suttles said.Yet as Suttles and other BP executives assured the nation that the leak was small, the oil company's engineers had developed internal models showing a probable flow that was magnitudes greater, setting the stage for an unparalleled disaster, according to a newly unsealed federal affidavit and internal BP documents.BP's internal flow-rate models -- and growing evidence that BP employees may have deliberately withheld from federal officials the damaging information found in them -- have emerged as a major focus of the Justice Department's two-year criminal investigation into the spill, according to legal experts and attorneys involved in litigation over the disaster.Documents obtained by The Huffington Post also indicate that Kurt Mix, a senior BP engineer charged April 24 with obstruction of justice, shared information with more senior BP executives during the spill, including a senior ...

Crew member died after he suffered crushing injuries when he was trapped in a watertight door Investigations into the death of a chief engineer on an Australian cruise vessel during a routine drill, have focused on a lot of flaws in the systems in place on the vessel, the Oceanic Discoverer. According to investigations, the crew member died after he suffered crushing injuries when he was trapped in a watertight door.In March 2009, the engineer had been participating in a fire and emergency drill on the vessel. The master of the vessel remotely closed the door from the bridge. Just a few minutes later, the chief engineer opened the door to walk through. He became trapped in the water tight door.According to investigations, the report had been set to almost twice the allowed speed, and this possibly contributed to the tragedy. Additionally, the investigation also found that the door was not maintained according to the manufacturer's specifications and instructions. The door also did not meet the performance standards set by the International Maritime Organization.According to an investigation by the Australian Transport Accident Investigation Commission, it is also likely that the alarm which was required to go off at when the ...

The port side lifting hooks of the gantry crane were not correctly engaged On 22 July 2011, the hatch-lid gantry crane on board the dry cargo vessel Blue Note derailed while it was carrying a single hatch-lid to its stowed position in preparation for discharging cargo.The derailment caused the chief officer, who had been riding on one of the crane's wheel units, to be thrown overboard; an able seaman, who had been riding on another wheel unit, to be left hanging by his hands over the 8.4m deep hold; and the second officer, who was operating the crane, to fall to the deck of the control platform. All three crewmen were lucky to escape with only minor injuries.The MAIB investigation found the most likely cause of the accident was that the port side lifting hooks of the gantry crane were not correctly engaged with the hatch-lid's sockets during an operation to move the lid aft to its open stowage position.This led to the port hooks becoming disengaged as the lid was being moved, causing it to fall and pivot about the starboard lifting hooks. The hatch-lid struck the starboard legs of the gantry crane, causing it to derail while the ...

Incident investigation for the electrical blackout and grounding of containership Clonlee MAIB issues Report on the investigation of the electrical blackout and subsequent grounding of the feeder container vessel Clonlee on the River Tyne, England on 16 March 2011.At 0110 on 16 March 2011, the Isle of Man registered feeder container vessel Clonlee suffered an electrical blackout as she entered the Port of Tyne, England. The ship's engineers were unable to restore the ship's power immediately and the vessel ran aground on Little Haven Beach at about 6 to 7 knots. The grounding caused no injuries and the vessel's hull remained intact.The probable cause of the electrical power failure was an intermittent electrical fault within the ship's electrical power supply and distribution systems. Clonlee ran aground because the power failure occurred within the confined waters of the harbour entrance and the master was unable to stop the vessel.For more information, click here.Source: MAIB

Crew trying to take short cuts in order to stay on schedule Latest incident photo: The stern section of MV Rena, still sitting on Astrolabe Reef ( photo: Maritime NZ)A report released Thursday by New Zealand investigators on how a cargo ship ran aground on a reef last year paints a picture of a crew trying to take short cuts in order to stay on schedule.On Oct. 5, the Rena smashed into the well-charted Astrolabe reef near the port of Tauranga, spilling 400 tons of fuel oil, fouling pristine beaches and killing thousands of seabirds in what has been called the country's worst maritime environmental disaster.The preliminary report by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission describes how the captain and navigating officer deviated from their planned route several times as they tried to make a 3 a.m. deadline to reach the port. They tried to plot a course that would have taken them much closer to the reef than recommended in navigational manuals.About two hours before the accident, the Tauranga port radioed the crew to say they needed to make "best speed" before tide changes would bring hours of delays getting into port. Soon after that, the captain and navigating officer ...

Prabhu Daya involved in the collision that led to the death of three fishermen off the Kerala Officials of the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) are gearing to begin investigations on board m.v. Prabhu Daya to find out whether it was involved in the mid-sea collision that led to the death of three fishermen off the Kerala coast on March 1.The vessel, flying the Singapore flag and belonging to Tolani Shipping (Singapore) Pvt. Ltd., is due to call at the Chennai port on Monday night following instructions from the Directorate-General of Shipping to divert it to the nearest port or to Kochi. The vessel aroused suspicion as it was one of the eight that were near the accident spot and had failed to respond to messages from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.The MMD, which is investigating the matter, has sought the permission of the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) authorities to berth the vessel, even as the latter is contemplating if it should give permission or not. The probe team is headed by Principal Officer M.P. John of MMD, Kochi.Talking to TheHindu, an MMD official said a team of four - a nautical surveyor, a radio surveyor, an electronic expert and a ...

In the Sound of Mull, on 9 August 2011 MAIB issues report regarding Grounding of CSL THAMES, in the Sound of Mull, on 9 August 2011 as follows:At 1026 (UTC +1) on 9 August 2011, CSL Thames, a Maltese registered selfdischarging bulk carrier, grounded briefly in the Sound of Mull while on passage from Glensanda to Wilhelmshaven. The vessel sustained bottom damage to her hull, including a 3-metre fracture to one of her water ballast deep tanks, which flooded. There were no reported injuries or pollution.The MAIB investigation found that CSL Thames ran aground after the third officer had altered the vessel's course to starboard of the planned track to avoid another vessel. He did not notice that the alteration would take CSL Thames into shallow water, and the audio alarm on the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) that should have alerted him to the impending danger was inoperative.Further, the master's and other watchkeepers' knowledge of the vessel's ECDIS was insufficient and therefore no-one within the bridge team questioned the absence of the ECDIS audio alarm, or recognised that the system's safety contour setting was inappropriate for the planned voyage.Alfa Ship & Crew Management GmbH has taken a ...

To evaluate the findings of the Costa Concordia investigation Nautilus International has welcomed a call from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) for the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to undertake a comprehensive evaluation from the findings of the Costa Concordia investigation.Christine Duffy CEO of the CLIA said that she spoke on behalf of the entire cruise industry when she expressed her heartfelt condolences to all those affected by the tragedy and praised the 'brave professionals on the scene right now' who worked tirelessly to evacuate the ship and care for the injured.'Safety is the cruise industry's number one priority,' she said. 'Cruise liners are, per passenger, one of the safest forms of recreation - and maritime incidents are incredibly rare.'Ms Duffy said that the cruise industry was heavily regulated by the IMO and that the CLIA has called on the organisation to review the evidence from the Costa Concordia once the investigations had been concluded so that the wider maritime community can ensure that any lessons that can be learnt are learnt.'The industry works constantly with the IMO and other international maritime authorities and classification societies to implement stringent safety standards and will continue to do so,' she concluded.Nautilus International ...

Stevedore crushed between containers The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) issued the report of its investigation into the stevedore fatality on board a container ship in Port Botany, New South Wales on 28 March 2010.The individual died when struck by a container during loading operations. A twistlock foundation failed when exposed to gross overstress conditions. While new employees were warned about the dangers of working between a moving container and a fixed object, this was not reinforced in safe work instructions and was routinely ignored on the jobFor more information, click here.Source: ATSB

The team aims to find out if there is any possibility of terrorist links A joint investigation team of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and state marine police is interrogating the 16 crewmembers of a Bangladeshi vessel that had sneaked into Balasore coast. The team aims to find out if there is any possibility of terrorist links.Two days after the Bangladeshi vessel's 16 crewmembers were taken into custody, the joint investigation has begun laying emphasis on "subversive and terror" angles. "The possibility of their links with terrorist organizations cannot be ruled out at the moment," said an official source. "The investigation has so far remained inconclusive. The arrested Bangladeshis are being subjected to intense questioning and interrogation as some clues have come out which indicate that they had trespassed into country's coastal zone with malicious intent.As the versions being given by the Bangladeshi crews vary from that of one another, investigators doubt the motive of their infiltration," said Shantanu Kumar Das, nodal officer, coastal security wing of the state police. No arms and ammunition were recovered from the seized foreign vessel. But there is a distinct possibility that they might have dumped the cache into the sea before the Coast ...