UK MAIB announced the publication of the first Safety Digest of 2023 featuring a collection of lessons learned from latest marine accidents involving vessels from the merchant, fishing and recreational sectors.
Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, Andrew Moll OBE opens this edition by expressing his thanks to Ashley Nicholson MBE, Hazel Bennett and Andrew Flanagan for their introductions, which bring contemporary context to the cautionary tales and safety messages within this publication. ‘This digest has a good balance of stories but perhaps with an increased number of incidents and accidentsthat were controlled early on by a well-trained crew and so did not escalate into a disaster or tragedy’, notes Mr. Andrew Moll, who found that in several cases a good system knowledge and well-practised safety drills prevented from a worse situation.
He pinpointed a case that involves the failure of a component that was not the subject of routine maintenance or periodic replacement.
Safety critical systems are full of such components; in this case it is a fuel actuator valve, but it could be a limit switch, a pressure relief valve or any number of other items. Ships can be in service for 25 to 30 years and while many components are inspected, maintained and routinely replaced, others soldier on until they fail. When you have done all the easy jobs, start thinking about the onboard systems you take for granted, and what might happen if they were to fail suddenly. If you do find out the hard way, please let us know and we will include your story in these digests so others can learn from your experience.
Mr. Andrew Moll said.
Ashley Nicholson joined the port industry nearly 15 years ago,having spent a very short period of time at sea. ‘‘Over the years my career has been entirely
focused on the maintenance of navigational safety within ports and harbours, and in doing so the creation and implementation of appropriate processes and procedures to facilitate the safe movement of the large variations of traffic we see in our UK waters. This remains my key priority in my roles as both president of the UKHMA and marine director at the Port of Tyne.”, she explaines.
Mrs Nicholson continues saying that :
A well-trained and competent individual will provide greater value to the overall safety and performance than that of an automated system and it is important that we do not become overreliant on the mechanics
Concluding, she notes that the MAIB reports provide a vital element in highlighting lessons, good and bad, from accidents and incidents across the industry. However, similar to having a robust safe operating system in place and failing to follow it, improvements to safety will only come if its recommendations and advice result in review and reflection and, where appropriate, changes to practice, equipment or process, that reduce the risk of similar incidents in the future.
Too often the MAIB’s conclusions are that incidents could have been avoided and yet the same or similar tragedies continue to appear on the pages of its reports and digests. While improvements to safety management are important, the need to learn from mistakes and experience will endure; that being said, we must base our growth and development of good safety practice on good solid foundations and not the shoogly pegs.
READ UK MAIB SAFETY DIGEST HERE
