Incident on 31 January 2020 : A rope of the pilot ladder breaks. Pilot could still reach the vessel

From that moment on I have been keeping a tally of the non compliant boarding arrangements I see in front of me on a daily base, and off course I participate in the annual safety campaign, conducted by IMPA each october.

A 35-year-old male sea pilot of the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) fell into the sea from a crude oil tanker near the N Shed Wharf in the port of Durban. A rope of the pilot ladder is said to have snapped for an undetermined reason when the man disembarked while leaving the crude oil tanker which was leaving the port of Durban.

Before you, you see my third article on pilot boarding arrangements. After my two previous articles ‘1000 ways to secure a pilot ladder’ and ‘1000 ladders around’, I have received a lot of feedback and also questions to get deeper into the matter of combinations and embarkation platforms.

Australia’s high-tech FRP specialist boat builder Hart Marine has been building pilot, patrol and rescue boats for a couple of decades. That experience tells as the boats continually improve from an already high base.

Study from 2020: Precise assessment of complex maritime navigation requires reliable and valid assessment frameworks. The purpose of this research was to examine the reliability and validity of the proposed CAPA-tool.

Despite clear regulations and regular maintenance requirements, safety often falls by the wayside, as the current example of a bulk carrier vividly demonstrates.

The International Users Group of ISPO-certified pilot organizations (IUG) congratulates Midwest Port Pilots on gaining its ISPO accreditation.

For days, the container freighter "Ever Given" had blocked the Suez Canal. Now Egypt and the shipping company are apparently arguing about compensation. For safety's sake, the canal authorities had the ship chained up.

Meanwhile, female pilots are more and more common.

In a navigation incident, the first line of inquiry would normally cover the bridge watchkeepers. While the human element plays a significant role in these incidents, it is perhaps worth asking, what if some geographic areas are more prone to navigation incidents than others?