Tag: ladders

In its latest Signals newsletter, North Club presents the role of pilot ladders in port operations and in crew safety, emphasizing that there are often serious incidents caused by pilots in boarding operations, even when the weather is fine and all equipment is correctly maintained.

In the latest edition of its Safety Digest, the UK MAIB presents the injury of three crew members on board a bulk carrier, during berthing operations, in a UK port, when the accommodation ladder they were rigging collapsed. UK MAIB provides a description of the case and important lessons learnt, to prevent similar accidents from occurring again.

An accident occurred onboard a Hong Kong-registered ship, when a chief engineer fell into the sea and drowned, during disembarking. The chief engineer did not wear shipboard inflatable lifejacket or SOLAS lifejacket in accordance with the requirements of the shipboard safety management system.

The Republic of Marshall Islands Registry issued a circular, informing on means of ship embarkation/disembarkation and pilot transfer arrangements, regulated by SOLAS International Convention. Inspections and tests to confirm proper construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment shall be conducted in accordance with SOLAS.

The American P&I Club issued a safety guide for shippers concerning the pilot boarding, as over the past five years, several injury incidents occurred from embarking and disembarking from a vessel’s pilot ladder.

The UK MAIB reports an incident where a pilot ladder failed on board a large passenger vessel during a routine harbour pilot transfer opeations and warns pilots to always inspect closely pilot ladders before using them to disembark a vessel.

The Nautical Institute has recently issue Mars Report to provide lessons learned from an incident in which pilot ladder magnets broke free and recommend to closely supervise the rigging of pilot ladders to ensure that SOLAS requirements are met in relation to the shipping/landing of pilots.

The Ship-owners P&I Club has issued bulletin on the maintenance of pilot ladders to bring major concerns to the attention of the crew and ensure that pilot ladders and other associated pilot boarding arrangements are maintained to the highest standards at all times.Pilot ladders remain the most efficient way for pilots to board vessels and even though this is a simple process improper pilot boarding arrangements continue to give rise to claims.

Transport Malta has issued safety investigation report on incident on board the Maltese registered bulk carrier CY Thunder in which an able seaman (AB) fell into the sea while rigging a combination pilot ladder, while the vessels was underway to embark a harbour pilot for Port Sudan.

IMCA has issued new Safety Flash including key safety matters and lessons learned from near miss incident due to equipment failure. The incident reported occurred during an embarkation offshore, in which a rope on a pilot ladder snapped. The person boarding the vessel managed to hold onto the hand line which was rigged alongside the pilot ladder, thus preventing himself from falling overboard.