The Transportation Safety Board of Canada released its investigation report about the grounding of the bulk carrier SBI Carioca near the Port of Belledune in Chaleur Bay, New Brunswick, on October 2017. Conflicting information and ineffective communication led to the 2017 grounding.
IMCA informs about an injury where a crewman got his feet trapped under the sliding step of an Ampelmann motion compensated telescopic gangway. The crewman did not sustain any life-threatening injuries. According to IMCA, the gap between the sliding step and the fixed part of the gangway on this system was large enough to trap the steel toecap of a regularly sized safety shoe/boot.
The Liberian Registry describes an incident where a smoke alarm went off in the engine room of a vessel while on a trade route between Asia and North America. The investigation showed that a leaking steam near the smoke detector had caused the alarm to go off.
On its monthly safety scenario for January, the Swedish Club presents a case where a ro-ro vessel with high speed approached the berth in a port but was not able to carefully enter because of the wind, causing the vessel’s bulbous bow to hit the quay. The vessel was obliged to dry dock and repair the bulbous bow.
The West of England Club informed that it has experienced two claims where, in separate incidents, a container vessel and a tanker inexplicably lost control whilst departing port under pilotage. Namely, one vessel made contact with an oil jetty causing notable damage to the face of the berth, while the other left ran aground on top of a submarine pipeline.
The Accident Investigation Board of Norway released its report on the work accident on board the Normand Maximus off the coast of Brazil on 21 February 2017. Because of the incident one died, while another one got seriously injured and three persons sustained minor injuries.
As part of its safety investigation on the sinking of the scallop dredger ‘Solstice’ with one fatality in September 2017, the UK MAIB issued a safety flyer for the fishing industry to share lessons learned from the casualty which raised poor stability concerns for fishing vessels.
OCIMF released the information paper ‘Sharing Lessons Learned from Incidents’ that encourages vessel operators to use three different levels of sharing the lessons learned from incidents.
December 12th marks 19 years since one of the most notorious marine oil spills ever reported in European waters. On 12 December 1999, the Erika, a 25 year-old single-hull oil tanker, broke in two off France, polluting almost 400 km of French coastline and causing unprecedented damage to marine environment, claiming the title of one of the most major environmental disasters of recent years.
