Ma Cho - Dec 2002

During a lifeboat drill, when the boat had been lowered approximately two metres from the davit head the after on-load release hook suddenly opened, releasing the after fall. The lifeboat’s stern fell to leave the boat suspended vertically by the remaining forward fall with its stern swinging approximately five metres above the water. The boat crew were shaken by the incident but remained secured in their seats inside the now vertical lifeboat.

The ATSB report found that the cable clamp securing the aft hook’s operating cable adjacent to the operating mechanism had been modified which resulted in lost motion within the cable and as a result of the lost motion in its operating cable, the after hook had not been fully reset after the previous lifeboat drill.

The design of the on-load release system was flawed with respect to the hook locking mechanism and the ship’s safety management system was deficient with respect to both the operating and maintenance instructions and to crew training on the on-load release system.

Download ATSB report (700kB): 

Ma Cho - Dec 2002