Passage plan needs to be signed by all bridge officers and Master

by The Editorial Team 

May 17, 2021

In its recently released casebook of maritime incidents, Swedish Club describes a grounding case, as the officer on watch (OOW) missed the waypoint.

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The case

It was night and a 700 TEU container vessel was sailing near the coast towards the next port. It was raining, so visibility was reduced.

On the bridge was the Second Officer who was OOW. The passage plan had been approved by the Master and the bridge team and entered into the GPS and radar.

Vessel began vibrating heavily

Suddenly the vessel vibrated heavily and veered strongly to port. The OOW was confused about what had happened. Soon afterwards the bow thruster room high level alarm sounded.

The Master came to the bridge and when he asked what had happened the OOW was still confused. The Master called the Chief Officer and asked him to check the forepeak and bow thruster room. A couple of minutes later the Chief Officer informed him that there was water ingress in both locations.

The Master stopped the engines and the vessel drifted until the situation could be assessed. The Master realised that the vessel had hit the bottom and contacted the nearest JRCC and informed them that the vessel had grounded and was taking on water.

The Master asked for assistance as he was unsure what had happened. Fortunately there was no pollution and no injuries, and the steering gear, engines and bow thruster were all operational. A rescue vessel from the nearest port came out to the vessel but no assistance was needed, and the vessel sailed to the nearest port and berthed without incident to assess the damage.

Waypoint not entered on GPS

The vessel frequently traded in the area, so the voyage was not unusual. It was found that the navigation officer had forgotten to insert a waypoint in the GPS. This meant that the course took the vessel straight over a shallow area where it ran aground.

Lessons learned

• When preparing a passage plan it is suggested that the plan is double-checked by another officer to ensure all waypoints have been entered into the navigation equipment. It is prudent to perform a two-person check of the passage plan and all critical navigational equipment, such as the GPS, before
  departure. The passage plan needs to be signed by all bridge officers and the Master.

• It is also suggested that every officer taking over the watch ensures that the passage plan is correct and that all the correct parameters are included in the GPS, radar and ECDIS. Any deviation from the passage plan during the watch needs to be reported when handing over to the next watch officer.

• ​If the passage plan is entered in the ECDIS and the correct safety depth is entered in the system, the software can check that the passage plan is not crossing any area with less depth than the safety depth.

      If any shallow areas or any other dangers are detected a warning will be triggered, which the     

      navigation officer must check and rectify. In this case the passage plan was not entered into the ECDIS

      and was only entered into the GPS and radar.

Once again, we highlight that all navigation equipment should be used and checked during the voyage.