The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its Annual Report highlighting the work of the branch during 2015. In 2015, a total of 1,057 accidents to UK vessels, or in UK coastal waters were reported to MAIB, involving 1,194 vessels.
Of these accidents, 46 involved only non-commercial vessels and 447 were occupational accidents that did not involve any actual or potential casualty to a vessel. There were 646 accidents involving 744 commercial vessels that involved actual or potential casualties to vessels.
For the sixth year in succession no UK merchant vessels of >100gt were lost. The size of the UK fleet has increased and so the overall accident rate for UK merchant vessels >100gt has fallen to 85 per 1000 vessels from 88 per 1000 vessels in 2014. Two crew lost their lives on UK merchant vessels >100gt during 2015. Only one UK small vessel (<100gt) was lost in 2015 compared with six in 2014.
Thirteen commercial fishing vessels were lost in 2015 compared with 12 in 2014. The average age of the boats lost was 34 years; 62% of these were small vessels under 15 metres (loa). An average of 17 commercial fishing vessels per year have been lost during the last 10 years. Seven fishermen lost their lives in 2015 compared with eight lives lost in 2014.
Five foreign flagged vessels were lost when trading in UK waters. There were 12 reported deaths of crew working on foreign flagged vessels which include the eight seafarers who were lost when the Cemfjord capsized.
The MAIB report includes:
An overview of accidents reported
A summary of investigations started
Details of investigation reports published
Responses to recommendations issued
Marine accident statistics
Read the report in full in pdf format: UK-MAIB-Annual-Report-2015-2016_07