2016 Safety recommendations from the final report WIM 47/15 – m/v NEFRYT

7. Safety Recommendations

The State Maritime Accident Investigation Commission has deemed it expedient to issue recommendations on safety, which are proposal of action, which could contribute to preventing similar accidents in future.

7.1. Shipowner

Since the Nefryt shipowner repaired the ventilation trunk of the ventilation system, the Commission has decided that there is no need to formulate recommendations in this regard. The Commission considered the actions taken by the shipowner right after the accident and later to be appropriate corrective and preventive measures , but nevertheless deemed them insufficient. The State Maritime Accident Investigation Commission recommends that the owner of Nefryt, i.e. Euroafrica Services Limited, should:

1) develop and add to the list of “ship’s procedure for normal operation and high risk operations” in the Quality and Safety Management Manual a ship’s procedure for cargo fumigation, with checklists for in-transit fumigation of cargo, recommended by the IMO in MSC.1/Circ.1264;

2) add a subparagraph concerning the assessment of technical condition of ventilation trunks and casings on the ship in the checklist on form 01/P-12 “Protocol of superintendent’s inspection” in paragraph 6 “Deck equipment and devices” or in paragraph 3 “Deck cargo holds/tanks”;

3) furnish the ships of its fleet with automated external defibrillators (AED) which analyse the heart rhythm and allow to establish whether the injured needs defibrillation.

7.2. Flag State Administration

The Commission prepared recommendations for the Transport of Malta Merchant Shipping Directorate, representing the flag state administration on the day of accident, concerning the extension of the scope of flag state inspection to enable the flag state inspectors to check also the technical condition of the ship’s ventilation systems, but due to the change of the ship’s country of registration within the period from the accident to the day of drafting the report, the Commission decided to send to the Maltese administration only a copy of this Final Report for information purposes.