Marine

The ATSB has two marine investigators in transit to investigate the fatal lifeboat accident at Port Hedland yesterday.

Failure to keep a proper lookout by either vessel has been
identified as the immediate cause of the ninth collision in five
years between a fishing vessel and a ship off the Australian
coast.

The failure of officers to use modern navigation bridge management principles was the major factor in the grounding of the Bahamas registered passenger ship Astor during the ship's departure from Townsville at around 7 pm on 26 February 2004, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (AT

As of 20 May 2004, seafarers will be able to make their safety concerns known under a new AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT safety initiative.

The ATSB has found that the tanker, Dampier Spirit, did not have sufficient speed to safely evade a cyclone that was approaching the coast of Western Australia after its mooring hawser failed on 6 April 2006.

The ATSB has found that a fire on board the Singapore registered ship Java Sea on 24 May 2005 started when hot pressurised thermal oil, possibly in the form of a spray, came into contact with an un-lagged section of the thermal oil heater exhaust piping.

The ATSB has found that there was no effective lookout being maintained on board either a fishing vessel or a bulk carrier when the two vessels collided off the South Australian coast on 23 April 2007, the latest in more than 50 such collisions investigated.

The ATSB has found that a leakage of dangerous goods on board the Liberian registered container ship Kota Pahlawan, off the coast of Australia, on 16 June 2006, occurred because the dangerous goods were not packaged properly.

The ATSB has found that an undetected flaw, and the subsequent failure of a critical main engine component, led to the bulk carrier Enterprise being disabled in Bass Strait on 10 July 2006 and drifting for nearly three days.

The ATSB has found that four crew members who were injured on board the bulk carrier Shirane on 2 April 2007 were not aware of similar previous boiler explosions (flashbacks) which could have fore warned them.