C2/​2010M M/​V GLOBAL CAR­RIER and M/​V ECOSTAR G.O, col­li­sion in Ox­elö­sund, Swe­den on 27 Feb­ru­ary 2010

19.07.2011

The investigation was carried out jointly with the Casualty Investigation Unit at the Maritime Division of the Swedish Transport Agency, Finland acting as the lead investigative state.

Summary

On 27 February 2010 the Finnish flagged vessel GLOBAL CARRIER was on a routine voyage from Turku, Finland bound for Oxelösund, Sweden with a cargo of semitrailers and trucks. There was dense fog in the archipelago but pilot assistance was not considered because the Master was licensed to carry out piloting. The Master had previous experience of this fairway in similar visibility conditions.

GLOBAL CARRIER approached the archipelago with a speed of 16.2 knots and navigation was carried out by the OOW, the 1st Officer and the Master was on the bridge. Two radars were in operation, one in 0.75 NM range and the other in 1.5 NM range. The electronic chart display was also in use.

When passing Ljungskär the speed was still 16.2 knots and the distance to harbour was 0.6 miles. At this stage the Master was in charge of navigation. The speed was reduced to 12.8 knots after passing Ljungskär. There was no communication concerning the manoeuvres between the team members on the bridge. The speed should normally have been 6 knots when passing Ljungskär.

Chief Officer released the first Officer about ten minutes prior the approach to harbour. The Mas-ter did order the Chief Officer for look out as there was no dedicated watchman for lookout. By this order the Chief Officer lost his situational awareness.

GLOBAL CARRIER collided with the alongside moored M/V ECOSTAR G.O in Oxelösund port with the speed of 7.2 knots.

This investigation raised several deficiencies such as inadequate voyage planning, poor Bridge Resource Management, excessive speed in dense fog, incomplete bridge manning, poor imple-mentation of company procedures and poor follow up by the VTS.

The investigators recommend the management company to improve the implementation of the SMS procedures on board.