Life Boat Launching Investigations Reveal Serious Flaws
Between 1 September and 30 November 2009 a Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on lifeboat launching arrangements was conducted jointly by the Paris MoU and the Tokyo MoU. The 27 member authorities of the Paris MoU carried out 5,749 inspections. In eighty cases the lifeboat launching appliances had deficiencies which were serious enough to detain the ship.
Preliminary results from the Paris MoU inspections show that one out of every five inspections revealed CIC-related deficiencies. During each inspection vital points of SOLAS Chapter III, ISM and the LSA Code requirements were verified. During the three-month period 246 ships have been detained. 30% of these detentions were CIC related. During the campaign 2,136 CIC-related deficiencies were found.
The campaign revealed that one out of every eight drills, when conducted, was not performed satisfactorily. This is an issue of serious concern to the Paris MoU Member States, and is often caused by lack of training. Of the procedures or instructions and identification of hazards associated with launching and recovery of lifeboats one out of 6 was found unsatisfactory. These are related to the safety management system on board the ship. All other items inspected showed good overall compliance. Full details of the CIC questionnaire are published on the Paris MoU website
A total of 32 flags had one or more CIC related detention. These flags cover 76% of the inspections. The flags, which were subject to ten or more inspections, with the highest CIC related detention record were:
- Switzerland with 12 inspections and two detentions (17%);
- Sierra Leone with 47 inspections and five detentions (11%);
- Togo with ten inspections and one detention (10%);
- Cambodia with 62 inspections and six detentions (10%).
A total of 67 flags, which cover 24% of the inspections, had no CIC related detentions at all. The Transport & Water Management Inspectorate of the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public works and Water Management released a statement considering the fact the Dutch flag did well with only one detention on 314 inspections (0.32%) detentions.
Most CIC inspections took place on general dry cargo ships (38%), followed by Ro-Ro container ships (15%) and bulk carriers (13%). Bulk carriers have the highest detention rate of (3%), followed by the general dry cargo ships ( 2%) and refrigerated cargo ships (1.2%). The Port State Control Committee will consider final analysis of the results of the campaign at its meeting in May 2010 and more detailed results will be presented to the International Maritime Organization.