Lessons learned from an incident involving a service boat transporting crew members to an anchored tanker, where poor visibility and unsafe conditions led to a tragic accident.
In the dark early morning hours, a service boat had been ordered to transport five crew members to an anchored tanker. There was rain and a two-metre swell, and the windshield wiper of the service boat was not effective. One of the tanker crew remembers thinking ‘How can the service boat skipper see where he is going?’ Then, the service boat hit some rocks and an emergency ensued. The tanker crew, wearing lifejackets, abandoned the service boat onto the rocks while the service boat crew stayed on their stricken boat.
One of the tanker crew was able to use his mobile phone to call for help. It took well over an hour for another service boat to come out and recover one crew from the stricken service boat. The other crew of this boat, the skipper, was missing. Another SAR vessel soon arrived and evacuated the tanker crew from the rocks. The skipper’s body was found some days later.
Lessons learned
- When being transported in small service boats, ensure there are lifejackets for all on board.
- As with a stop work order, if you are unsure of the safety of a situation, in this case the small service boat, refuse to board and call the Master.
- To keep crews safe while transiting to their vessels, companies may wish to instigate procedures and minimum standards for crew transport boats as guidance for local agents that arrange transportation.