The Transportation Safety Board has found that vessel design and the level of emergency preparedness provided contributed to a fatal incident in St. John’s Harbour in September of 2022.
A 61-year-old deckhand died after he fell overboard from a pilot boat that was meeting up with another vessel coming into port.
The TSB says the deckhand’s personal flotation device failed to inflate, reducing the likelihood of his survival. He was recovered from the water by another vessel, but was later pronounced dead.
The TSB says the pilot vessel used a wire and tether system to reduce the risk of going overboard, however its design and installation prevented crew members from being continuously connected to the wire as they moved about the vessel. Crew members had to disconnect from their tether while moving from the side to the front of the wheelhouse, which contributed to the deckhand being untethered and falling overboard.
The report also found that man overboard drills were conducted in calm waters, with a deckhand available to help. As a result says the TSB, the drills did not show that a single person could not manoeuvre the vessel and rescue an unconscious person from the water using available recovery equipment. The board says the level of emergency preparedness made it practically impossible for the master alone to retrieve the deckhand from the water.