How technology expands awareness
I visited the headquarters of MAIB yesterday, the United Kingdom government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, located in Southampton.
The MAIB people are using advanced systems for recovery and analysis of a growing menu of electronic “black box” data, much of it carried aboard modern commercial and passenger ships.
The growing use of diverse electronic monitoring systems, ashore and afloat, is expanding “maritime domain awareness” to track the actions of people, processes and things.
Regulators can access a growing array of sophisticated on-board monitoring technology to tell us what actually happened (read: accidents).
Moreover, we are now acquiring the means to monitor what’s happening on board and under way, right now, in real time.
No more “magic pipes”?
It means that the investigation of casualties… Continue reading
Shocked and ashamed by training ‘deficiencies’
Experience has taught us that most casualties are cause by a human agency. It is possible that we need to train seafarers to handle different tasks in a different way. The use of lifesaving equipment is one example. Continue reading
Looking for support
We have long expected that another major oil spill would happen some day. If this happens, will draconian and possibly unworkable regulations be put in effect? How can our industry work together to eliminate the “holes in the fence” that now exist, and create a more broad-based, higher quality and performance system within our industry? Continue reading