North Sea Collision

[stronglead]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20616997

Just found this :/

[GuinnessMan]

Aye, we were discussing this today.

Not very good at all....

[size4riggerboots]

And has already been attributed to "human error"

[GuinnessMan]

And has already been attributed to "human error"

Well, there isn't really many other reasons for two ships to wally in to each other. Someone, somewhere fecked up....

[gadget123]

But human error seems to be a way of blaming it on the OOW before the facts of the situation are known.

[alistairuk]

2 ships collide.... regardless of the situation as OOW its at least partially your bloody fault!

[GuinnessMan]

But human error seems to be a way of blaming it on the OOW before the facts of the situation are known.

Two ships have collided whilst on passage. Even if one was disabled, the other certainly wasn't, especially as it hit it with enough force to make the bloody thing sink, so one or both OOW's are at fault.

[gadget123]

Two ships have collided whilst on passage. Even if one was disabled, the other certainly wasn't, especially as it hit it with enough force to make the bloody thing sink, so one or both OOW's are at fault.

But seriously a Greek ship manager putting it down to human error within 24 hours of the accident does seem like he is trying to wash his hands of the situation.

[HarmlessWeasel]

2012-12-06 17.21.31.jpgthis was all that was mentioned about it in the evening standard (highly reputable paper, I know). Tiny article 25 pages in

[GuinnessMan]

But seriously a Greek ship manager putting it down to human error within 24 hours of the accident does seem like he is trying to wash his hands of the situation.

Well, to be honest, what else is it going to be? Chances are they know more about whats going on......

[thebrookster]

But seriously a Greek ship manager putting it down to human error within 24 hours of the accident does seem like he is trying to wash his hands of the situation.

There are plenty of options that could have gone wrong. Human Error is a basic excuse that tells you absolutely nothing. Of course there might have been a 3rd mate on watch who was on his first voyage (therefore lack of confidence) but why would a company have allowed this?

Having just spent over a week on a safety course (MCRM course, which is becoming mandatory under STCW 2010) you realise there is much more to any incidence, and blaming one person is a cop out. Nanny state and the rest aside, many companies have a lot to answer for regarding safety culture. OK, there are many exceptions, but this should not have happened.

[Hatchorder]

(The following is all said with respect to the fact that this is a tragedy and seafarers lost their lives, so I am in no way making light of the tragic loss of life.)

Right....

Here is the full story...

Deckie OOW on the bridge of one ship gets a call from the engine room saying they are taking engines off bridge control because they are working on it, meanwhile engine cadet leans up against the steering gear panel and turns off both pumps. OOW realises there is a problem and pulls telegraph to stop. However 2/E has bashed his head on beer fridge in Control room reaching for another Stella from his wheelie chair and overbalanced so nobody answers telegraph and the ship ploughs on slowly swinging to port because the bunkers have only been taken from one tank on the starboard side for the last 10 days as the heating coils in the port tank are leaking water into the bunkers and so have been shut off causing a 1% list to port.

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the other ship OOW notices all his power is lost. ETO has gone into generator room and is crawling on top of the cages around the busbars and a 12" shifter in his breast pocket falls through the cage lands across the busbars and shorts out the genny, temporarily blinding him whilst simultaneously giving him an instand suntan and a burn on his chest from the metal zip on his boiler suit. However the emergency genny fails to cut in because the 3/E forgot to replace the fuse that blew because they tried to lower the stern ramp on the emergency genny last time in port because the remote starts on the gennys did not work and he could not be bothered to walk down and start a genny. OOW on the bridge has lost all lights and radar and does not realise that the Auto Pilot is off because the alarm was fixed by the 4/E last week by sticking chewing gum in the buzzer because it kept going off for no reason. OOW does not realise that the ship is slowly swinging to port until it is swinging at an alarming rate because he spends so much time cancelling all the other alarms that keep going off. He grabs the wheel but finds the rudder is sluggish because the top pintle was wrapped in rags in the last dry dock because it rattled badly in a beam swell and the engineers told the superintendent that it would take 5 days to fix it and the drydock is needed in 3 days for another ship.

Despite the best endeavours of two highly attentive and competent Deck Officers the ships are on a collision course and the inevitable happens.

Result - everyone else has screwed it up but the deckies get the blame..... exactly the same as the Costa Concordie. I'll bet it turns out that the engineers were to blame but the Captain carried the can.

I know this is all true because I read it in the Daily Mail

Oh.... and you are all right - should never have happened....

[GuinnessMan]

There are plenty of options that could have gone wrong. Human Error is a basic excuse that tells you absolutely nothing. Of course there might have been a 3rd mate on watch who was on his first voyage (therefore lack of confidence) but why would a company have allowed this?

Having just spent over a week on a safety course (MCRM course, which is becoming mandatory under STCW 2010) you realise there is much more to any incidence, and blaming one person is a cop out. Nanny state and the rest aside, many companies have a lot to answer for regarding safety culture. OK, there are many exceptions, but this should not have happened.

I've done my accident investigator course and I've actually investigated one or two accidents myself and I know how all the "Direct Cause" and "Root Cause" hoohaa works, but whether it was one person or several then there was clearly some human error somewhere along the line, whether it be the OOW snoozing away or the Master has left a newly qualified bod on his lonesome in a busy waterway it is still going to be human error. To be honest, from what I've read (and there isn't much to go on) I reckon one of the car decks must have been flooded fairly quickly and for that to happen, then the other ship had to have been going at some speed as it would have had to go through a ballast tank/void space to get to a car deck, and once thats flooding then your stability is completely out of the window and if the weather was a bit on the rough side (quite likely) then it wouldn't have taken long for her to go down. It's sad that more seafarer's have died from what is most likely an avoidable accident and Im not wanting to smear anyone with anything, but at the moment, thats what I'm seeing, however I await the investigation report with interest. Anyone know if it's us, Bahama's or the Belgians investigating?

[gadget123]

There are endless ways that they could have collided and it not been entirely the OOW's fault. Just the ship managers will always be keen to hang the crew out to dry and keep themselves safe from any blame. Obviously it is human error but it is just as likely that the error was on the part of the manager/owners as it was the crew.

[GuinnessMan]

There are endless ways that they could have collided and it not been entirely the OOW's fault. Just the ship managers will always be keen to hang the crew out to dry and keep themselves safe from any blame. Obviously it is human error but it is just as likely that the error was on the part of the manager/owners as it was the crew.

How did you come to that conclusion exactly? The safe navigation of the vessel sits squarely on the shoulders of the Master, you know, the chap with the overriding authority as per ISM? If there were problems on board and if he had doubts about the OOW then why on earth would he leave him or her to navigate on their lonesome? That is Human Error on the part of the OOW and the Master. It is nearly impossible for two ships sailing in open water to have a collision where Human Error was not a factor and just so you know, nearly all Ship Managers will go to the wall for their crew when they know they're in the right. Costa may have hung their Master out to dry, but to be totally honest, he ****ed up and ****ed up bad and there was really little they could do....

Also, I did see a thingy on Linkedin which had the AIS track of the two vessels. It was utterly pants, but you can see the car carrier do some strange steering....