PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Dear Members and fellow Marine Professionals Welcome to the President’s Column for March 2024.
We, IIMS, have certainly started 2024 off at a great pace, with the publication of the Safety and Loss Prevention Briefings Compendium 2023 extending to 172 pages of maritime incidents and accidents that occurred during 2023. It is a sad reflection on our industry that there are still too many accidents occurring which provide the material for such an authoritative publication. Many of these incidents are related to human error or ‘the human factor’. It will be interesting to see how marine incidents develop in years to come, as ‘we’ remove the human factor and allow more and more automation and AI to manage our vessels. Certainly, there are many questions that need to be addressed before more autonomy is allowed for inter- national trading vessels. the Compendium in pdf format at
https://bit.ly/48svS7b or click to read it online in eReader format at
https://bit.ly/4aOXPb1.
One recurring incident that continues to claim the lives of seafarers and other personnel employed on, or in shipping are deaths in enclosed spaces. This should not be happening! I would say that every seafarer and person working in commercial shipping has at some time or other had training in ‘Enclosed Space Entry’. So, why are we still seeing so many fatalities?
As marine surveyors we always need to consider our safety first. I have attended many vessels and needed to enter tanks, but the crew has not been prepared and the tanks have not been opened or vented. The scope of survey has clearly been provided to the operator/technical managers and their agents in advance of attendance on board, but for ‘commercial or operational reasons’ the Master has not wanted to open the tanks.
There is very little ‘we’ can do in this case other than report to our client that the tanks were not prepared for safe entry and therefore have not been inspected. Remember to state clearly in your survey report the reason why you did not inspect the tanks and which ones they were. You cannot comment on the internal condition of the tanks’ structure or coatings that you did not see yourself.
Please always carry your own multi-gas detector and do not rely on the ship’s equipment. The ship ‘must’ prepare the tank for safe entry with their own gas detector and permit to work procedure, but we all know that these may not be in such good condition.
THE REPORT | MAR 2024 | ISSUE 107 | 5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
