lifejacket – Maritime Accident Casebook

MOB Saved – But Wasn’t Wearing Lifejacket

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Oct 102010

An MOB is lucky to be alive after he fell overboard from a containership while rigging a pilot boarding ladder. MOBs while rigging pilot ladders and accommodation ladders are unfortunately common with sadly frequent results.

Thames Coastguard coordinated the successful rescue of a 27-year-old man this morning after he had fallen overboard from a container vessel 16 miles off Felixstowe.
At 6.15 am Thames Coastguard received a report that a man had fallen overboard from the 57000 ton container vessel MSC Gina. The crew member, a male from Montenegro, had been preparing a boarding ladder in readiness for a pilot to board to take the vessel into Felixstowe when the platform collapsed and he fell overboard. He was not wearing a lifejacket or safety harness.

MCIB: MOB Mystery, Wasn’t Wearing Lifejacket

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Sep 242010

Victim's position

Marijus Rudakov fell overboard from the FV Alma Amy and drowned. He was not wearing a life jacket.

Just another one of those sad tiny tragedies doom themselves to a watery death and their families to grief by not wearing a lifejacket.

Ireland’s Maritime Casualty Investigation Board points out in its report “It is a statutory obligation for fishermen whilst on the deck of a fishing vessel to wear suitable lifejackets”.

Wearing a lifejacket is arguably also a fisherman’s obligation to his family.

Why Mr. Rudakov fell overboard is unknown. He can’t tell because he wasn’t wearing a lifejacket.

The harrowing attempts to save Mr. Rudakov are outlined in the MCIB report:

Safety Alert – MOB, Lifejackets, Hazard Assessment and Wear

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Sep 072009

At about 1308 on 12 February 2009, a deckhand on board the UK registered scallop dredger Maggie Ann fell overboard as he was emptying a dredge bag. He had been standing on the port dredge beam, which was suspended and almost level with the gunwale, when the dredge bag lifting becket parted.

The deckhand was not wearing a personal flotation device or a safety harness when he stepped onto the elevated dredge beam, and it was not the practice for deckhands to do so. On this occasion, he let go of the suspension chain to facilitate his emptying one of the dredge bags. As he grasped the dredge bag with both hands, the lifting becket parted, causing him to fall forward and with no protection from the bulwark, to continue to fall overboard.

Safety Alert – SEACREWSADER 275N lifejacket secondary inflation failure

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Aug 062009

Manual inflation of the SEACREWSADER 275N lifejacket, manufactured by Crewsaver, MAY require an unacceptable level of force to operate. This has been identified as an intermittent operational fault which does not affect the primary automatic inflation function and lifejackets with the moulded pull – cords are more likely to be affected.

A moulded plastic pull cord, as opposed to a nylon line, stretches significantly prior to the 120N maximum acceptable force being reached.
The packing method can introduce a restriction to the release arm, increasing the force required to manually operate.

Sat Nav Lifejacket Wins UK Gallileo Prize

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Oct 242008

GIt probably won’t be on your ship anytime soon but a British company formed by yachtie technophiles, Sci-Tech, has won this years UK Gallileo prize for a lifejacket that tells satellite navigation systems where it, and hence its wearer, is. Literally, it could be a ifesaver in man-overboard situations.

Gallileo, Europe’s answer to the US-controlled GPS system is the EU’s biggest space project. Each year prizes are given to companies and individuals coming up with ideas to use the Gallileo satellite navigation system. Winners get a 20,000 Euro, $40,000, cash prize and support under a business incubation system.

When immersed in water, a device in the Sci-Tech lifejacket connects with a Gallileo or GPS satellite and its co-ordinates transmitted to the vessel or rescue services, rather like the traditional EPIRB. Vessels searching for an MOB can simply feed the data into a commercial navigation system and track the wearer.

More information is available here from the BBC.

SciTech Systems