Fatigue led to Shen Neng 1 grounding ATSB says succession of errors by a tired crew member to blame
пятница 16 Апрель 2010
CREW fatigue led to the grounding of the 69,100 dwt panamax bulker Shen Neng 1 on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on April 3 an early investigation by Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found.
A preliminary report into the casualty released by the bureau yesterday said: “In essence, a simple succession of errors on the part of a very tired crew member had resulted in the grounding.”
The report said the chief officer “had had a very busy time while the ship was in Gladstone loading and he had had only 2.5 hours of broken sleep in the previous 37 hours”.
Among the errors outlined by the bureau were that crew did not reset course alteration alarms in the ship’s global positioning system after the master and second mate changed the ship’s planned route slightly.
The chief officer was also left alone “in the wheelhouse with an able-bodied seaman acting as look out” despite it being the first time the chief officer had navigated through the area.
Other errors were that the chief mate failed to change the charts on the chart table, or establish the ship’s distance from the next course alteration point.
The chief engineer visited the bridge at about 1630 hrs when coincidentally the ship reached the course alteration waypoint and when the first mate had intended to fix the ship’s position. Instead, when he did this at 1700 hrs he realised the ship was past the amended waypoint and very close to Douglas Shoal.
The report said that despite the chief officer attempting to alter course at the last minute, it “was too late and shortly thereafter the ship grounded at a speed of about 12 knots”.
The release of the report coincided with the first appearance in court of the master and chief officer of the ship since they were arrested by Australian Federal Police officers on Wednesday.
The master, Wang Jichang, was charged with liability for a vessel which caused damage. Chief officer Wang Xuegang was charged with being the person in charge of a vessel that caused damage to the Great Barrier Reef marine park.
Both men, who appeared at Gladstone magistrate’s court, were released. Capt Wang was bailed but Mr Wang must remain on board the ship and surrender his passport, although he too is expected to be bailed.
China Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: “We hope the Australian government will deal with it with justice and guarantee the legitimate rights of Chinese citizens. We also hope that during the judicial process the Australian government will abide by the China-Australia consular agreement.”
The next court hearing was scheduled for June 9.
A replacement master and chief officer have flown to Australia to take control of the ship, which is likely to sail to Gladstone where its cargo of 68,052 tonnes of coal can be unloaded.
The grounding caused extensive damage to the ship’s hull and double-bottom ballast and fuel tanks.
About four tonnes of fuel oil leaked from the ship, which was carrying around 977 tonnes of fuel oil, the bureau said.
The bureau said its investigation was focusing on several main areas. These were the ship’s bridge resource management practices, including passage planning, watchkeeping and passage monitoring, the ship and manager’s fatigue management systems such as work-rest schedules and practices and human factors issues including fatigue, distractions and situational awareness.
The bureau said it would examine existing protective measures in the Great Barrier Reef, including the coastal vessel traffic service, coastal pilotage and ship routing guidelines.
It would also look at the initial incident response on board the ship, control and monitoring from ashore and salvage efforts, it added. ллойдс лист
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