The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its Safer Seas Digest 2024, which details the most important lessons learned from maritime investigations completed last year. Safer Seas Digest 2024 details the facts and analyzes the probable causes of 34 maritime casualties, including capsizings, collisions, contacts, fires, floodings, groundings and machinery damage.
Among the events included in the report are the engine room fire aboard the passenger ferry Sandy Ground near Staten Island, New York, and the fire aboard the dinner cruise vessel Spirit of Boston in Boston.
Investigators uncovered some notable commonalities that all mariners should consider. These include:
• Providing adequate procedures and training
• Determining adequate staffing
• Maintaining alertness and vigilance
• Maintaining unimpeded return flow in
• Diesel engine fuel oil return systems
• Mitigating fire risks
• Ensuring watertight integrity
• Installing and testing bilge alarms
• Preventing hull corrosion
• Accounting for hydrodynamic forces
• Planning for current The digest also highlights the marine safety issue of safety management systems (SMS) for passenger vessels—a safety issue that the NTSB has identified in numerous marine investigations.
The NTSB encourages operators to act now and implement an SMS today.
Download the Report: NTSB Safer Seas Digest 2024
