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.

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…

The Finnish special vessel "Meri" collided with Holtenau High Bridge (Holtenauer Hochbrücke) over the Kiel Canal early on 30 Nov 2022 morning at around 4.37 am.

Pilot ladder broke when pilot was boarding general cargo ship CREST CRANE at night Nov 5 at Keelung Port, Taiwan, to take the ship out.

This article was originally published on Baird Maritime (link below)
When a pilot is berthing a ship with the aid of tugs, it sometimes happens that the ship lands heavily and suffers minor damage. More commonly in my experience, it also happens that the crew discover a large dent for which they cannot account ...

Incident between pilot boat and practical Nissos Chios (Balearia), leaving the port of Ceuta (Spain). June 2019

Christening of new pilot tender "Mira" - a lightweight powerhouse Press Release Hoek van Holland, 2 April 2020 by Next Generation Shipyards On Thursday 2 April, Annebel de Deugd (interim manager fleet management of Nederlands Loodswezen), christened the new Dutch pilots’ tender Mira; one of the lightest tenders in the Nederlands Loodswezen fleet. Lighter than ever The instructions given by Nederlands Loodswezen to ship designer Camarc and shipbuilder Next Generation Shipyards had been clear:...