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.

NTSB issued an investigation report on the contact of tow William C with a Rock Island railroad bridge protection cell, on Des Plaines River, in January 2020. The investigation established that high speed prevented the pilot to correct the tow’s position after completing the transit through the previous bridge.

Port operations, whether these are being performed on water or on land, are often not without risk. Pilots boarding a ship while sailing, navigating through narrow passages, collision avoidance with other smaller or larger vessels, discharging and moving cargo on land, walking between container handling equipment and trucks…

An ATSB interim report outlines the sequence of events leading to the collision between the container vessel Maersk Shekou and the berthed tall ship STS Leeuwin II in Fremantle on 30 August 2024.

For "Der Spiegel", an experienced pilot and ex-captain analysed the accident of the freighter Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal for days, on the basis of documents. His conclusion: the captain and pilot made serious mistakes during the passage.

Container ship APL MEXICO CITY broke off her mooring at Doel, Antwerp, in the afternoon Dec 9, drifted across harbor and contacted DP World pier crane. Crane collapsed and was totally destroyed.

The Varna Pilot Station in Bulgaria has chosen Seably, the global online marketplace for bespoke maritime learning, to become the first pilot station to use the digital platform for its training.

The Alusafe 1620 Pilot is a special designed Pilot Vessel. The vessel is designed for harsh weather in open seas as well as in sheltered waters with high marine traffic.