casualties – Page 5 – Professional Mariner

06 Jan

Boxship owner to pay Maryland for oyster bar damage

Rich MillerMaritime Newscasualties

(BALTIMORE) – The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a wetlands license Wednesday that requires the owner of the containership Ever Forward to fund the seeding of oyster bars as mitigation for the effects of the vessel’s grounding on aquatic habitat. Ever Forward was underway on March 13, 2022, from Baltimore to Norfolk, Va., with 4,964 containers when it grounded…

23 Dec

Nearly 900 evacuated after fire aboard Staten Island ferry

Rich MillerMaritime Newscasualties, ferries, U.S. Coast Guard

(NEW YORK) — Nearly 900 passengers and crewmembers were evacuated from a ferry bound for Staten Island from Manhattan on Thursday after a fire in the vessel's engine room, ABC News reported. Five people were injured in the fire aboard Sandy Ground, with three going to the hospital with unspecified minor injuries, the New York Fire Department said at a…

22 Nov

NTSB renews call for personal locator beacons

Rich MillerMaritime Newscasualties

(WASHINGTON) — Two recent marine casualties — involving the liftboat SEACOR Power and the fishing vessel Emmy Rose — highlight the critical safety importance of providing personal locator beacons (PLBs) to mariners to aid in search-and-rescue operations in a variety of conditions — a recommendation the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been making for more than five years. On…

30 Sep

Lessons learned: NTSB’s Safer Seas Digest 2021

Rich MillerMaritime Newscasualties, U.S. Coast Guard

(WASHINGTON) — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its Safer Seas Digest 2021, which highlights the most important lessons learned from marine investigations last year. Safer Seas Digest 2021 details the lessons learned from 31 maritime tragedies involving capsizings, contact, collisions, fires, flooding and groundings. Among the investigations included in the report are the sinking of Scandies Rose,…

01 Sep

Safety alert: Hidden corrosion on deck fittings

Rich MillerMaritime Newscasualties, Safety alert, U.S. Coast Guard

(WASHINGTON) — A recent marine casualty that resulted in a severe injury to a crewmember on board a U.S.-flagged cargo vessel brought to light a dangerous and potentially fatal situation involving D-ring lifting points. While positioning a removable hatch cover on the vessel, three of the four D-ring securing straps failed, causing an uncontrolled snapback of the lifting sling assembly…

01 Dec

Casualty Briefs – December/January 2021

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty Newsbulk carrier, casualties, casualty, containership, destroyer

Seamanship errors, fatigue cited in fatal collision of destroyer The 2017 collision of the destroyer USS Fitzgerald and the containership ACX Crystal stemmed from failures by the Navy ship’s bridge team in the minutes leading to impact, federal investigators said. Seven American sailors were killed. Specifically, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that Fitzgerald’s bridge crew failed “to take early and…

01 Dec

Fatal dive boat fire attributed to operator’s oversight failures

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty Newscasualties, casualty, fire, investigation, Santa Barbara

Before dawn on Sept. 2, 2019, a crewman aboard the dive boat Conception awoke to a strange sound. He investigated and found the vessel’s salon compartment, one deck below, aglow with fire. He awoke four co-workers sleeping nearby, and together they attempted to reach the 34 people sleeping below deck. Flames and intense heat on the main deck made the…

01 Dec

Key NTSB findings

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty Newscasualties, casualty, fire

• Most of the victims on Conception were awake but could not escape the bunk room before all were overcome by smoke inhalation. • The source of ignition was not confirmed, although the electrical distribution system of the vessel, unattended batteries being charged and improperly discarded smoking materials were the most likely sources. • Interconnected smoke detectors in all accommodation…

01 Dec

Analysis points to faulty loading, low ballast in Golden Ray rollover

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty Newscasualties, casualty

While the salvage of the sunken vehicle carrier Golden Ray was delayed for months due to COVID-19 and the hurricane season, analysis by the U.S. Coast Guard has determined a possible cause for the rollover: a combination of vehicles placed too high on the ship’s decks, and not enough ballast water given the placement of the cargo. On Sept. 8,…

24 Sep

Maritime Casualty News, September 2020

Professional Mariner StaffNewslettercasualties, casualty, Maritime Casualty Newsletter, maritime news, news

NTSB releases documents on Conception dive boat fire The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a trove of documents related to the Sept. 2, 2019 fire aboard the dive boat Conception off California’s southern coast that left 34 people dead. The information is contained in the NTSB’s public docket related to the incident. The docket was made available earlier…