(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The Cyprus Marine Accident and Incident Investigation Committee (MAIC) examines and investigates all types of marine accidents to or on board Cyprus Flag vessels worldwide, and other vessels in Cyprus territorial waters. The objective of the MAIC in investigating an accident, is the prevention of future accidents by establishing their root causes and circumstances.
Accident Description:
On 5 May 2024, 18:30 local time, during the mooring operations of the ship FIONA B (IMO 9574303) in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, a mooring line from the ship fell in the sea and got entangled in the ship’s propeller causing it to part and recoil back towards a crew member, striking him and throwing him backwards on the ship’s deck. The crew member succumbed several minutes later from severe head trauma.
MAIC initiated an investigation into the accident according to Article 15(1) of the Investigation of Marine Accident and Incidents Law (Ν.94(Ι)/2012) for the death of the crew member, with the collaboration of the Netherlands as a substantially interested state. Investigators from the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) visited the site and conducted extensive witness interviews, took photographs of the site, collected documents and conveyed all the necessary information to MAIC.
Furthermore, MAIC collected additional information from the ship’s management company and performed analyses based on the available information to determine the causal factors that contributed to the accident as well as identify any other safety issues that should be addressed.
CONCLUSIONS:
The investigation concluded that the root cause of the accident was the failure to adhere to basic procedures and practices regarding the handling of mooring lines. The direct cause was identified to be the uncontrolled and excessive release of the mooring rope, and allowing it to fall into the water.
This investigation additionally revealed a number of contributing factors such as the absence of adequate risk analysis, different job understanding and execution, to the job prescribed, failure of communication at the job site, insufficient sharing of information, insufficient manning of the job site, fatigue, overload of information, and confusion and frustration of the involved personnel.
Finally, the investigation further revealed a number of safety related issues (both relevant and non-relevant to the accident) such as mistakes in official documentation, ineffective work allocation, possible failure to adequately implement the watchkeeping schedule, gaps in the safety topics covered in relevant literature, and operational effectiveness of the emergency services.
For full analysis of the events and more details, click below to download the full Investigation report:
Source: Cyprus MAIC
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