The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has published the MAIB Safety Digest April 2023, the first of its two biannual publications featuring a wide selection of case studies.
Andrew Moll OBE, Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, MAIB writes in his introduction as follows:
Welcome to MAIB Safety Digest April 2023. In my opinion, this is the more important of the MAIB’s biannual Safety Digests because it is published as the northern hemisphere emerges from winter. This is not simply an observation that the leisure boating season is about to start, though the digest does give us the opportunity to re-emphasise some good safety tips before going afloat.
More to the point, anyone can be caught out as the air warms and layers of clothing are shed. Strong sea breezes that develop as the sun heats the land can add significant wind-chill that turns a pleasant day into a cold one, and anyone
entering the water, deliberately or otherwise, will find the sea temperature is still very cold.
As usual, I will start by thanking Ashley Nicholson MBE, Hazel Bennett and Andrew Flanagan for their respective introductions to the merchant, fishing and recreational sections of this edition. Each is an expert in their own field, and their industry insights help bring contemporary context to the cautionary tales and safety messages in the following pages.
I hope you will find time to read the whole edition but please do read the section introductions. This digest has a good balance of stories but perhaps with an increased number of incidents and accidents that were controlled early on by a well-trained crew and so did not escalate into a disaster or tragedy. I am in complete agreement with Ashley’s words, It is how you deal with an incident rather than what happens that matters; look at cases 5, 12 and 16 for some examples of where good system knowledge and well-practised safety drills helped save the day.
Case 12 interested me because it 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 (see case 6), 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.
Finally, the Reul A Chuain safety flyer, reproduced at the back of this digest, helps me make the point that it is too late to start thinking about man overboard procedures when you have someone in the water. One of MAIB’s key safety messages for 2023 is not just to think about how you would recover an unconscious man overboard, but to actually practice it as realistically as possible. Put simply, if your risk assessment identifies a risk of falling or being knocked overboard, especially if one of the mitigations is wearing a personal flotation device, then should that occur the next task will be man overboard recovery. Putting a lifejacket on is easy; recovering a man overboard is not – please practice it. I hope you enjoy reading the MAIB Safety Digest April 2023 and, when you have finished, please pass the digest on so others can benefit too.
Be safe.
Andrew Moll OBE
Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents
