Better safety culture and operating models for avoiding risks required in the Archipelago Sea

The Safety Investigation Authority’s investigation of the incident between Finnlines Ltd’s RoPax ferry M/s Finnswanin and Finferries’ road ferry L/a Mergus in the Archipelago Sea on 13 November 2019 has been completed. Both vessels had to take drastic evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision. At its closest, the distance between the two vessels was less than thirty meters.

“Line ferries, road ferries and commuter ferries often encounter each other on the Naantali route, but the risks of these encounters have not been assessed properly. Operating procedures and the application of the rules of the road at sea are based on established practice and the discretion of ships’ masters and ferry captains. Finland needs a system, such as the one in Sweden, for facilitating discussion both between shipping companies that regularly operate the same routes and between shipping companies and the authorities”, says Professor Veli-Pekka Nurmi, Executive Director of the Safety Investigation Authority.

“Route users currently lack the capacity for assessing risks. For example, masters rely on the established practice that road ferries normally give way to larger vessels. In the case of Mergus and Finnswan, the master of the road ferry was taking care of several duties at the same time. Posting lookouts and making departure reports is only required in poor visibility, for instance. At present, too many contributing factors to hazardous situations and potential accidents are left at the discretion of mariners, and this is what we want to address with out recommendations”, says Investigator-in-Charge Esko Värttiö.

Four recommendations were issued and one previously issued recommendation reiterated on the basis of the investigation. The recommendations were addressed to several operators: the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Finferries, the Finnish Shipowners’ Association, Finnpilot Oy and VTS Finland. The recommendations concern safety cooperation between the operators, monitoring and sharing information, operating models, risk assessments and information systems, traffic report practices, and bridge ergonomics.

Further information:

Veli-Pekka Nurmi, Director, Professor, tel. +358 2951 50701 Twitter: @VPNurmi

Ilkka Kervinen, Head of investigation team, tel. +358 2951 50750 Twitter: @IlkkaKervinen