MSC Grace - October 2007

Lowering the lifeboat it started to swing severly and it was decided to rehoist the lifeboat.. Shortly before reaching the stop position, both releasing hooks suddenly opened and the boat fell. There was no one in the boat at the time, but the first officer was injured by the falling boat.

The fall of the MSC GRACE lifeboat is not directly due to human error as at that time there were no persons in the boat. Since the lifeboat itself was not available for examination, no further technical examinations or appraisals could be carried out.
The investigators were unable to gather any reliable statements concerning the condition of the release unit. However, it is assumed that the release lever was secured at the time of the fall. Nevertheless, either wear, or an incorrect setting or a technical fault caused the single, supposedly secured release system to malfunction

There was a manual on board however it did not contain any basic description of the principle of the interplay between forward and aft releasing hooks and no step-by-step schematic illustrations of the actions to release and secure the device.  Due to the deficiencies of the manual, the crew only had limited opportunity to understand the functioning principle of the hook and to carry out important inspection work.

 

Download BSU report (2Mb):

MSC Grace - Oct 2007