Tiredness blamed for reef crash
Source: Agencies |
April 15, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN overtired chief mate who had slept less than three hours in almost two days was partly to blame for sending a fully laden Chinese coal ship slamming into the Great Barrier Reef last year and causing a minor fuel spill, investigators said yesterday.
The environmental damage from the grounding was largely limited to a gouge in a piece of the World Heritage listed reef, but the accident raised fears about the potential for a much bigger disaster because the reef lines one of the busiest shipping routes from Australia's coal mines and Asia.
Officials in Queensland state where the grounding occurred said new satellite monitoring systems introduced after the incident would start operating in July to guard against future problems.
The Chinese-registered Shen Neng 1 strayed from a shipping lane off northeast Queensland and ran aground on April 3 last year, spilling nearly 3 tons of fuel oil and etching a scar across a coral shoal that may take 20 years to heal.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded in a final report released yesterday that a number of factors contributed to the accident, but the grounding ultimately happened because the chief mate failed to correctly monitor the ship's position and to alter its course when he should have.
The investigators found that the chief mate had slept just two and a half hours in the 38 hours before the grounding because he was supervising the entry of the ship to port and the loading of its cargo of 20,000 tons of coal. He failed to check the ship's position when he took over from his deputy shortly before the grounding. An hour later, he checked the ship's global positioning system and realized the ship was off course.
"He immediately told the duty seaman to put the ship's helm hard over to starboard, but it was too late," the report said.
The investigators found there was no management system in place on the ship to ensure officers on the bridge were fit to stand watch and no guidance on the use of GPS and navigation plans. They also said the lack of visual navigation warning signs was a contributory factor. The chief mate and another ship's officer face fines of tens of thousands of dollars. The ship's owners could also face fines.
The environmental damage from the grounding was largely limited to a gouge in a piece of the World Heritage listed reef, but the accident raised fears about the potential for a much bigger disaster because the reef lines one of the busiest shipping routes from Australia's coal mines and Asia.
Officials in Queensland state where the grounding occurred said new satellite monitoring systems introduced after the incident would start operating in July to guard against future problems.
The Chinese-registered Shen Neng 1 strayed from a shipping lane off northeast Queensland and ran aground on April 3 last year, spilling nearly 3 tons of fuel oil and etching a scar across a coral shoal that may take 20 years to heal.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded in a final report released yesterday that a number of factors contributed to the accident, but the grounding ultimately happened because the chief mate failed to correctly monitor the ship's position and to alter its course when he should have.
The investigators found that the chief mate had slept just two and a half hours in the 38 hours before the grounding because he was supervising the entry of the ship to port and the loading of its cargo of 20,000 tons of coal. He failed to check the ship's position when he took over from his deputy shortly before the grounding. An hour later, he checked the ship's global positioning system and realized the ship was off course.
"He immediately told the duty seaman to put the ship's helm hard over to starboard, but it was too late," the report said.
The investigators found there was no management system in place on the ship to ensure officers on the bridge were fit to stand watch and no guidance on the use of GPS and navigation plans. They also said the lack of visual navigation warning signs was a contributory factor. The chief mate and another ship's officer face fines of tens of thousands of dollars. The ship's owners could also face fines.
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