Crew member dies after fall during ramp hatch maintenance
A vessel’s safety procedures are always at risk of becoming routine, which may cause real hazards to be overlooked. A recent Mars Report serves as an example, in which a crew member fell from 4.5...Read more
Minister gets started on Safety Board advice following MSC Zoe disaster
Dutch Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen is going to do her best to better protect the Wadden area against shipping accidents such as the one involving the container ship MSC Zoe. However, she cannot yet promise...Read more
DSB: Both Wadden Sea shipping routes at risk of losing containers
The Wadden area must be better protected against the loss of containers on the shipping routes that pass the islands to the north. During northwestern storm, both the northern and southern routes form a risk...Read more
Do you conduct a risk assessment before working on your ship’s boiler?
Boilers involve heat and pressure and are, therefore inherently a risk and should be included in vessel procedures. In a recent Mars Report, such a procedure was lacking resulting in the death of a crew...Read more
Crew member falls into open manhole
An unattended, open manhole can pose a hazard on board ships and should be dealt with as such. The Nautical Institute gives advice on how to prevent such accidents in a recent Mars Report after...Read more
Alcohol abuse and poor BRM cause ship to hit bollards
Closed-loop communications are an essential part of good bridge resource management (BRM). In a recent Mars Report, less than adequate BRM allowed for a single point failure and resulted in a ship hitting dolphins. Alcohol...Read more
Charges against master APL England after losing containers off Australia
Charges have been laid against the master of the APL England, which lost about fifty containers off the coast of Sydney. The offences relate to pollution and/or damage of the Australian marine environment as a...Read more
Collision of frigate Helge Ingstad and tanker was a ‘symphony of errors’
The Nautical Institute discusses the collision between the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad and the tanker Sola TS in a recent Mars Report and calls it a ‘symphony of errors’. A lack of situational awareness, no...Read more
Have your anchors at the ready when navigating restricted waters
Anchors can do more than simply keep a ship in place. In a recent Mars Report a tanker used its anchors as an emergency brake and managed to prevent grounding. The Mars reports are compiled (anonymously)...Read more
Passenger ship has parking problem
The marine industry is unusual in that up to five people have to coordinate their movements and actions to manoeuvre a massive floating object safely to berth. Working as individuals, each in their own bubble,...Read more
Minister: MSC likely to pay large part of MSC Zoe disaster costs
The Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen is in talks with MSC about recovering the clean up costs of the MSC Zoe disaster in the Dutch Wadden Sea. She says there...Read more
New video shows breaking of installation vessel Orion’s crane hook
New video footage of the Orion accident has emerged on social media and it confirms that a failing hook was the cause for the accident. In the video, it is clearly visible that the hook...Read more
Container ship ONE lacking ballast when it hit terminal crane in Busan
The South Korean authorities have traced the cause of the accident in which a container ship of the Japanese shipping company ONE sailed into a crane in the port of Busan at the beginning of...Read more
Liebherr: Third party hook caused Orion crane accident
A malfunctioning hook from an external supplier caused the crane accident onboard Deme’s new offshore vessel Orion 1. Why the hook did not withstand the load is still unclear, but authorities and experts unanimously agree...Read more
Don’t cut corners when mooring your ship
Mooring a ship safely usually requires more than one person at each mooring station. In a recent Mars Report, the focus was on getting the job done instead of doing it safely. The work-around the...Read more
How not to carry out work aloft on board a ship
Improvised procedures, wrongful use of machinery and equipment and bypassing safety switches. Sometimes a single Mars Report can tell you exactly how not to carry out a relatively simple task. The incident described here covers...Read more
Do you regularly inspect the solenoid valve on your ship?
Solenoid valves can control and regulate fluids and gases on board a ship. But when do they need to be inspected or changed? In a recent Mars Report, a tanker was confronted with a malfunctioning...Read more
Dare to relieve the pilot when ship manoeuvres go wrong
‘If the master believes the vessel’s safety is at risk, he must relieve the pilot,’ says The Swedish Club in its Navigational Claims 2020 publication. A recent Mars Report shows just why. In this Report,...Read more