EDITORIAL 08/07

August 10th, 2007 by JCB
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Editorial

I make no apologies for including another pilotage incident report as the feature this quarter because the very nature of our work means that we have a very high statistical chance of being involved in an incident.

Any lessons that may be learned through investigations are of immense value not least because they are revealing an alarming trend by investigators to readily criticise the pilot’s lack of integration into the “bridge team” even though the reality of the average bridge team frequently results in the pilot operating as a one man band. In the Crimson Mars case, the disaster was caused by the helm being put over the wrong way. We all know that this is not that uncommon, especially these days where good helmsmen are rapidly becoming an endangered species and in the case of the Crimson Mars the minimal margins for error in the pilotage waters meant that the few seconds of delay in realising the erroneous helm order transformed a routine manoeuvre into a major disaster. The nature of pilotage is such that margins for error are frequently minimal, a fact that was brought dramatically home to me recently on a laden tanker when the Master failed to correctly switch the control from the centre to bridge wing consoles. By the time we realised that the engine was not reacting to the pitch control lever and rectified the error we only just managed to avoid hitting the jetty. Afterwards, as one does, I reflected upon the incident and lucky escape. Until the error, the ship was well under control. Had we hit the jetty the damage to the ship would have been minimal but it would probably have damaged some fendering and thus put the jetty out of action for a few days. Since the jetty in question serves a main fuel distribution depot, the “knock-on” effect could have jeopardised fuel supplies and therefore the damage claim could have been considerable. Incident reports have left me in no doubt that the investigators would have managed to find some fault with my pilotage technique. Such is the life of a pilot!