Seventy one accounts of incidents that took place in 2014 on 54 vessels were submitted for the annual Dynamic positioning station keeping incidents: Incidents for 2014 (M 231) report, produced by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA).
Thruster/propulsion issues proved to be the main cause for dynamic positioning (DP) incidents in 2014 accounting for 36% of such events; followed by computer issues at 18% and power and references both at 13%.
Following these as the main cause are human error (10%); external factors (3%) and environment (also at 3%). There were no recorded main causes attributed to electrical failings.
The report's release comes as Australia's safety regulator released details of a loss of DP incident in its waters. Read more.
“The level of reporting when compared to 2013 has been maintained; but there is awareness that events are still occurring and not being reported,” says IMCA’s Technical Director, Richard Benzie. “Analysis on the 71 reports submitted by 54 vessels gives an average of 1.31 reports per vessel. As in previous years, the average remains between one and two. If this rate was to be repeated throughout the DP fleet, there should be a much higher number of reported events.”
There were 32 DP Incidents, 25 DP Undesired Events; and 14 DP Downtime reports submitted.
An innovation to M231 this year is that the comments, initiating event and causes have been incorporated into a spreadsheet for easy comparison.
It invites input from key DP personnel to consider whether the recorded events of 2014 could potentially affect their own vessel by asking the following questions: "Could this happen on your vessel?"; "What, if any, additional safe guards need to be taken?"; "Is this covered in the vessel FMEA?" The spreadsheet further allows for the recording of corrective actions taken such as "Recommendations to improve vessel, DP procedures, FMEA and DP drills."
“These types of report are about learning from experience, so it makes sound sense to encourage anyone looking at them to consider how they, and their vessel, could be affected,” explains Richard Benzie. ”Preparation of the 2015 reports is already underway. We encourage all who experience incidents or events to report them to [email protected]; they will be made anonymous and approved by the originating organization prior to distribution. Help us to help others learn from your experience.”
Read more
Subscribe
