Health & Safety

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has published its report on the engine room fire aboard the containership President Eisenhower, that took place on April 28, 2021, off California.

At midnight, on April 28, the President Eisenhower was about 6 miles south of Port Hueneme, California, navigating the northwest-bound traffic lane of the Santa Barbara Channel at a speed of 17.5 knots with the main engine operating at 68 rpm. The navigation watch group consisted of a third mate and two able seamen (AB). The master’s night orders included instructions to gradually increase Continue reading “Crew insufficiently swaging compression fitting ferrule led to containership fire is investigation finding”

International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published details of two incidents in which something went wrong owing to failures in the maintenance process. There were no reported injuries in either incident.

The first incident relates to the lowering of a lifeboat when a small shackle broke. The shackle held the upper sheave guiding the brake release wire, resulting in the sheave falling down on top of the lower sheave. Continue reading “Check that all equipment parts are movable and operational after maintenance process”

ABS has published industry best practices to address the challenges posed by an aging global Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) fleet.

Enhancing Safety on FPSOs: Operations and Maintenance is the output from an ABS-led working group consisting of Chevron, Shell Trading (U.S.) Company, Petrobras, MODEC and SBM as well as The Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Registry, and the U.S. Coast Guard 8th District. Continue reading “New report published to enhance FPSO safety”

The Swedish Club  has described a fatal fall incident in its latest monthly safety bulletin about how an AB lost his balance during a wire change operation, resulting in him falling onto the hatch cover from a height of about 8 metres and losing his life.

It was an early spring morning with clear skies and calm seas and the vessel was sailing in the open seas. The Chief Officer had assembled the deck crew in the deck office and instructed them about the planned job for the day which was to change the wire of one of the deck cranes. All members were designated a job and the risk assessment Continue reading “Fatal fall accident during a wire change operation”

On 21 August 2019, a landing barge (operated as a Class 1E and 2D) capsized while transiting from Great Mackerel Beach to Pittwater north of Sydney. AMSA has provided the lessons learnt from this event.

Leading up to the incident the landing barge loaded a vacuum suction truck and secured it to the starboard side of the deck so that the master could maintain forward visibility from the wheelhouse while navigating the vessel. Following, the vessel listed to starboard and subsequently capsized shortly after leaving Great Mackerel Beach. The investigation found at the time of the incident no wind or wave action was present. Continue reading “Lack of stability book knowledge led to landing barge capsize”