The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) informed that a total of forty five domestic commercial vessel incidents were reported in the month of October. Of these, seven were categorised as serious.
AMSA has published a list of the most serious incidents that occurred during October:
– A deck hand was bitten by sea snake while bringing in the nets. He could not be revived by emergency services.
– Vessel anchor rope become entangled in the propeller, damaging the rudder and seizing the motor, leaving the vessel disabled.
– A 10m yacht sank with 400 litres of diesel on-board. Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Australia assisted in the rescue of the crew.
– Vessel grounded causing damage to chain locker. A hull inspection revealed damage to the hull and bow stem.
– Collision between two vessels causing damage to roof and liferaft of one vessel. It was believed no one was at the helm of the other vessel at the time of the incident. Water police were notified.
– A crew member shut off the fuel, pulled the incorrect handle and released CO2 into engine Bay area. No injuries reported.
– A snorkeler was pulled from the water after becoming unresponsive and unconscious due to a medical event.
During September, AMSA announced that it has a steady increase in incident reports, from 1721 reports in 2013, to 3017 reports in 2017, which represents a 75% increase over a five-year period. From 1 January to 30 June 2018, AMSA received 1611 incident reports.
Incident reporting includes two simple steps for AMSA:
– Submit incident alert: As soon as possible and within 4 hours after becoming aware of the incident, submit Form 18—Incident alert. The alerts inform AMSA that a serious event has occurred.
– Submit incident report: Within 72 hours after becoming aware of the incident, submit Form 19— Incident report. The incident report provides detailed information about the incident, in particular the measures put in place to prevent re-occurrence.
