The Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU) hereby announces the publication of the Investigation Report No. 285/20 on 26 October 2022. The report deals with the contact of the multipurpose ship ELSE with a closed lockgate of the Kiel-Holtenau lock which occurred on 29 August 2020.

Dr. Tobias Haack (Hadag)
Dirk Lehmann (Becker Marine System)
Evangelos Fragkoulis (Svitzer)
Moderation: Eva Beykirch (Navisense)

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the maritime supply chain and called for accelerated adoption of digital technologies in various aspects of maritime operations, including the area of maritime education and training (MET).

UKMPA has released a notice to their members today regarding the so-called non compliant trapdoors. Vessels have been rejected entrance, talks have started with different shipping companies.

Exemplary manoeuvre: The pilot should always walk on the side of the pilot boat facing away from the vessel. This prevents the pilot from being trapped between the two vessels in the event of a fall into the water.

Hooghly river Marine pilotage is one of the toughest and longest pilotage in the world,
pilots here face many challenges daily to enable safe passage of ships from bay of Bengal to the port of CALCUTTA and Haldia.
Pilot embarkation and disembarkation is a vital part , where the pilot climbs up or down a rope ladder ,if the free board is more than 9 meters then combination ladder is used it needs very good physical fitness practice and experience to safely embark and disembark from these...

It has been exactly one year ago that a pilot from Sandy Hook (New York), Dennis Sherwood, died in the line of duty while attempting to board the container vessel Maersk Kensington.
What has happened since then? Has safety been improved for the pilots?

After crossing the Atlantic Ocean and entered in the Mediterranean sea it is time to call the pilots at Chioggia/Venice, Italy.

Shortly after 5 a.m. local time the vessel “Else” had a collision in the Kiel-Holtenau lock to the Kiel Canal.
The "Else" subject to pilotage passed the pilot's boarding position without taking a sea pilot on board and collided from the outside into the closed gate of the new north lock. The bow bored into the metal construction and the ship was stuck for about six hours.
For more information about this accident see related content below (articles).