Tag: MSC 98

Lifeboat drill accidents have significantly increased during last years. Therefore, IMO at its 98th Session of Maritime Safety Committee on June 2017, adopted amendments to the guidelines considering abandon ship drills using lifeboats with a view to reduce related accidents.

The Shipowners Club issued a cyber security notice, stressing that companies should not only be aware of external cyber threats but also those that can occur internally. Procedures, rules and training should be put into place to limit the opportunity for cyber-attacks to occur.

The US Coast Guard informed that the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee, held in June, approved the Guidelines for the Selection of Life Safety Performance Criteria, for use in Alternative Design and Arrangements for Fire Safety. Correspondingly, the USCG Marine Safety Center will now refer to these life safety criteria, when assessing vessels.

As the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee, held last week, has confirmed that cyber risks should be managed under the ISM Code, the North of England P&I Club urges operators to act without delay, to ensure that cyber risks are addressed in their safety management systems, in order to identify vulnerabilities and to achieve safeguard against these risks.

The International Unit of Marine Insurance announced that it supports the efforts of the IMO, classification societies and shipowner associations to understand, assess and mitigate the risk of cyber threats, in order to make them more transparent and understandable to operators.

ABS has issued a brief bulletin providing highlights of IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee’s 98th session, which met from June 7 to 16, 2017. The Committee adopted SOLAS amendments effective from 2020 and discussed about the IGF Code revisions, IMSBC Code amendments, cyber risk and autonomous shipping among many other issues.

Following an initiative by the Norwegian Maritime Authority, among others, IMO decided to put the issue of autonomous ships on the agenda for discussion at the next MSC. Norway has already started up the first trials of autonomous ships, through the approval of a test area in the Trondheimsfjord.

IMO’s Marine Safety Committee adopted amendments to SOLAS2020 that raise the damage stability requirements for passenger vessels, in the event of flooding caused by a collision. These changes used as a basis a series of EU and EMSA funded cooperative research projects conducted by the shipping industry over several decades, DNV GL noted.

IMO informed that on its Maritime Safety Committee, from 7-16 June, will set for adoption amendments on safety requirements, to ensure new-build passenger ships remain afloat after a major incident.

At the MSC98 it was confirmed that IACS’s corrective actions including the rule amendments were completed. The completion of the initial GBS verification process paves the way for the latest ship designs and structures based on Common Structural Rules for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers.