Office Of Marine Safety News

A captain’s decision to get under way while fatigued led to the grounding and sinking of a fishing vessel near Whittier, Alaska, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in Marine Investigation Report released Tuesday.On July 24, 2021, the fishing vessel Tenacious, which fished primarily for pink salmon, grounded at the entrance to Wells Passage while transiting to fishing grounds in Prince William Sound. The five crewmembers abandoned the vessel and were rescued. The Tenacious later sank. One minor injury was reported.

Longtime mariner and investigator Morgan Turrell has been named director of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Office of Marine Safety effective March 1.The office investigates major marine accidents within the United States and its territories, as well as accidents involving U.S.-flagged vessels worldwide.Turrell began his career at the NTSB in 2003 as a nautical operations investigator. From 2007 to 2010 he served as Vice President of Marine Investigations for Princess Cruises, where he investigated casualties aboard ships worldwide.

In November the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee held a hearing on “Commercial and Passenger Vessel Safety: Challenges and Opportunities.” Testimony covered a range of issues, from recent tragedies such as the Conception dive-boat disaster to antiquated maritime laws.Hearing witness list:Rear Admiral Richard V. Timme, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy, United States Coast GuardThe Honorable Richard Balzano…

BMT, a leading, multidisciplinary management consultancy, has reported phenomenal growth in sales of its maritime simulator and has just signed multiple key contracts with select cruise lines including Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn in North America and P&O Cruises Australia. The orders for both office and ship-based licences of BMT’s REMBRANDT maritime simulator will support cruise lines on more than 39 cruise ships.REMBRANDT is fully scalable – operating in full mission modes through to desktop and laptop configurable modes.

BMT has reported rapid growth in sales for its maritime simulator and has signed a number of contracts for its simulator system with cruise lines that include Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn in North America and P&O Cruises Australia.The orders for both office and ship-based licenses of the company’s REMBRANDT maritime simulator will support cruise lines on more than 39 ships.Dr. Phil Thompson, Simulation and Training Business Director at BMT, commented: “REMBRANDT delivers the highest standards of maneuvring simulation within an S-57 and S-63 ENC environment.

Maritime accident investigation reports for collisions, explosions, capsizings and allisions and the lessons learned within those reports are detailed in the National Transportation Safety Board’s Safer Seas Digest 2017, released online Thursday.The publication is a compendium of 41 marine accident reports for accidents involving fishing, offshore supply, cargo, passenger, tanker, towing and government vessels. Reports in the digest were adopted or issued by the NTSB during calendar year 2017.The Safer Seas Digest is a publication designed with mariners in mind…

For nearly 20 years, leaders of the tug and barge industry in the region have converged on SUNY Maritime College in the spring to discuss current issues and initiatives facing the industry. This year will be no different; the 18th annual Towing Industry Forum will include presentations about safety management systems, wind farms and their impact on marine traffic, and a federal study regarding route planning and access to East Coast ports, among other topics. The forum, organized by the college’s Department of Professional Education and Training, will be from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will launch its third mission to the wreckage of the El Faro on Friday from Virginia Beach, Virginia. The mission’s primary objective is to retrieve the sunken cargo ship’s voyage data recorder. The Military Sealift Command’s fleet ocean tug USNS Apache is expected to arrive at the accident site around August 9. Along with the NTSB, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, and Phoenix International are joining the recovery effort, using CURV-21…

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board hopes to recover the voyage data recorder from the cargo ship El Faro, which sank during a hurricane killing all 33 crew on board, over the next two to three months, an agency official said on Thursday. A surveillance trip to the site where the ship sank last year, some 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) below sea level off the Bahamas, pinpointed the location of the recorder on April 26. It should contain navigational data and the last 12 hours of audio on the ship's bridge, Brian Curtis, acting director of the Office of Marine Safety at the NTSB, told reporters. He spoke after the voyage to locate the recorder returned to port in Massachusetts. "We know where it is but it is still a tall challenge.

The investigative team who located the El Faro’s voyage data recorder (VDR) has determined that another mission will be necessary in order to retrieve the device, which may contain recorded conversations and sounds from the ship’s navigation bridge, potentially helping investigators to piece together the sequence of events that led to the cargo ship’s sinking during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015. The team of investigators and scientists aboard research vessel Atlantis collaborated…

The e-Navigation Underway 2015 – North America conference will be hosted by The State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College from September 28 to 30 on the college’s Throggs Neck, N.Y. campus. The conference’s theme is: “Reducing Risk through E-Navigation,” which follows the pace of the IMO’s Correspondence Group on e-Navigation. The keynote speaker will be Joseph Trotti, CEO of AIG Global Marine and Aerospace, and Francis Zachariae, the new Secretary General of the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) and formerly the deputy director general of Danish Maritime Authority (DMA), will be the luncheon speaker on the conference’s final day. Other confirmed speakers include Tracy Murrell, Director Office of Marine Safety, U.S.

Until January of this year, Sean Connaughton oversaw seven state agencies with more than 9,700 employees and combined annual budgets of $5 billion. Connaughton is probably better known to MarineNews readers as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administrator during the second Bush Administration. As U.S. Maritime Administrator, he was responsible for the daily management of that agency and its promotional programs for the marine transportation industry. This included advising and assisting the Secretary of Transportation on commercial maritime matters…

The U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation Tuesday into the circumstances surrounding a fire aboard the Carnival Triumph, that ocurred Sunday. The Carnival Triumph experienced an engine room fire while on a four-day cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, and has been without propulsion in the Gulf of Mexico since. The ship’s automatic fire extinguishing systems activated and the fire was extinguished. No injuries to guests or crew members were reported in connection to the fire. The ship is expected to arrive in Mobile, Ala., Thursday evening.

The U.S. Coast Guard & the National Transportation Safety Board begin investigation into the circumstances of the fire. According to information given to  Reuters by the Coast Guard the fire on board the Carnival Corp cruise ship that drifted for days in the Gulf of Mexico awash in raw sewage started from fuel from a leaking diesel engine fuel line that ignited. The Coast Guard explains that because the Carnival Triumph is a Bahamian flagged vessel, the Bahamas Maritime Authority is the primary investigative agency. In accordance with international guidelines, the U.S. will participate in this investigation as a Marine Safety Investigative State.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the cause of an engine room fire that occurred onboard the Carnival Triumph, Sunday. The Carnival Triumph experienced an engine room fire Sunday while on a four-day cruise from Galveston, Texas, and has been without propulsion in the Gulf of Mexico since. The ship’s automatic fire extinguishing systems activated and the fire was extinguished. It was reported that there were no injuries to guests or crew members. The ship is expected to arrive in Mobile, AL, Thursday evening. Because the Carnival Triumph is a Bahamian flagged vessel, the Bahamas Maritime Authority is the primary investigative agency. In accordance with international guidelines, the U.S.

Andrew Lawrence takes up the appointment based at corporate HQ in Seattle, Washington. As part of the Marine Casualty Response Service Line, Andrew Lawrence will develop salvage plans, provide detailed engineering support, and assist with project management during emergency and routine operations. Mr. Lawrence served as a Coast Guard officer for eight years, including 5 years at the Coast Guard’s premiere engineering office, the Marine Safety Center. At the Marine Safety Center…

Sean Connaughton, Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia, oversees seven state agencies with more than 9,700 employees and combined annual budgets of $5 billion. But this transportation professional is perhaps best known to MarineNews readers as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administrator during the second Bush Administration. As U.S. Maritime Administrator, he was responsible for the daily management of that agency and its promotional programs for the marine transportation industry.

Washington, D.C. —The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) announced that it has appointed a panel of maritime and safety experts to provide an impartial assessment of the recommendations developed by the Cruise Industry Operational Safety Review, launched in January, 2012. This Panel of Experts will evaluate suggested policy improvements as part of continuous efforts to review and improve safety measures by developing comprehensive best practices for industry-wide implementation and. ultimately, formal submission to the International Maritime Organization, as appropriate. “Our number one priority is the safety of passengers and crew,” said Christine Duffy, President and CEO of CLIA.