Pilot

This is an "only in Astoria" moment we get to see every day.

MAIB says: "This analysis indicates that 99.6% of pilot transfers while underway were completed safely and without incident or accident during 2022."

In it´s August 2022 monthly safety scenario, the Swedish Club describes an accident where a pilot had fallen into the water, after one of the side ropes of the ladder broke.

The IMO has adopted groundbreaking amendments to SOLAS Regulation V/23, introducing mandatory performance standards for pilot transfer arrangements.

There were some astonishing pictures in the press some weeks ago of a Royal Marine employing a jetpack to launch himself from a RIB to land on the deck of a ship with extraordinary precision. You cannot imagine that it would be a feasible proposition to equip pilots with such a device, but it did cross my mind after reading a horrible catalogue of disgraceful seamanship and poor design exhibited in what ought to be the simple matter of keeping pilots safe as they board and leave ships.

Learn more about MITAGS in their full-length feature "About Us" video!

How our Virtual Reality (VR DESIGN) software workd.

Pilot cutters are used to take pilots between the three pilot stations (at Gravesend, Harwich and Ramsgate) and ships entering or leaving the Port of London.
Three dedicated pilot cutters Patrol, Guide and our hybrid Leader are based at Gravesend. The six cutters used at Ramsgate are operated by a Estuary Services Limited, which is jointly owned by the PLA and Medway Ports Ltd.

Here’s a nice video of the rough weather sea trials of San Ciprian’s new Interceptor 42 Pilot boat ‘San Ciprano’. With the Covid-19 travel restrictions in place and the Guys from San Ciprian unable to fly here at present we’re having to do a remote ‘on-line handover’. So we made this video to give them every confidence that she is performing well, as she handled comfortably the stormy conditions prevailing on the South Coast of Ireland last Friday nicely, with winds of 50kts at the entrance...

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