Urgent guidelines from MAIB after six die

A proliferation of gassing tragedies, with six men dying in enclosed spaces aboard British ships in a matter of months, has caused the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch to publish an urgent safety bulletin on such accidents.

Giving the problem an international dimension, the bulletin reports on an exercise started last year under the aegis of the Marine Accident Investigators’ International Forum, which tasked its representative from Vanuatu to research the incidence of accidents in enclosed spaces.

The MAIB reports that to date, 18 administrations have reported on 120 such fatalities and 123 injuries resulting from entry into enclosed spaces since 1991.

The three tragedies, which have been responsible for the safety bulletin, include the death in a chain locker last September of three experienced seafarers aboard an emergency response and rescue vessel.

This was a ‘classic’ gassing incident, with the first man collapsing in the oxygen-depleted space, a shipmate hastening to rescue him and being overcome and a third man constrained by lack of space removing his breathing apparatus and perishing.

Two men aboard the general cargoship Sava Lake died in a store adjacent to a cargo hold containing steel turnings, while in the third incident, just last month, an experienced seafarer died in an almost empty ballast tank aboard the cruiseship Saga Rose. It appears that as the seafarer had not been expected to enter the tank, no permit to work had been issued.

It is hoped that the collection of statistics begun by Vanuatu will enable the full impact of this preventable death and injury to be more widely realised and a submission to the International Maritime Organization to be made.

Besides raising awareness, this would highlight the need for measures to be taken to reduce the loss of life, such as the identification and marking of all potentially dangerous spaces.