Safety at sea now

[Ron Kendall]

If flight panam 103 had exploded about 8 minutes sooner, it would have been around Sellafield nuclear site, and I would not have been typing this message!

[happy daze john in oz]

Do any of you remember fire drill at the 'Vindi'?
Crawling along a tunnel filled with smoke from burning wet straw. The idae was it would ready us for a fire at sea should it occur. I think most of us almost choked to deatggh on the smoke.

[j.sabourn]

Flying, voyaging, train journeying or just going to the supermarket will always have elements of danger attached, especially now in the era of terrorism. We talk about ships and the abandonment of such, which as an earlier post I certainly agree with, as trying to get 3000 or so elderly passengers discharged is bad enough in a controlled environment which it is never going to be. We talk about crew training, all very well to say this man or that man did a fire course or has a boat ticket, under actual conditions of wanting to survive you are never going to get 100 per cent compliance from his past training. Human nature being what it is, some people are going to have more reserves of strength than others, fear of dying really brings out what a man is capable of, you see this example in the one person who should of had these reserves in the master of the Costa Concordia and the South Korean ferry. The 2 people on board these vessels who should have had the reserves so demanded in their situations. In an ideal situation and one reconized by the BOT examination board in 1963, I was put in a simulated position as master on a passenger vessel by the examiner. Rushing around and doing this and doing that, thought I had the answer well covered. I nearly failed the orals on this one question alone, his words not mine were, " you are the master of the ship and your place is on the Bridge and you delegate". I have always kept this in mind. However on a normal modern vessel I sometimes wonder that this is a bit outdated now, as there is nobody to delegate to, so an answer to this orals question God knows what answer would or should be given now. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

I often wonder when at boat drill on acruise ship how would the crew cope in a real emergency? Personal survival is a powerful instinct which in many cases will come to the fore. There is no knowing how anyone will react until it happens. Though I think it would have to be something extremely catastrophic to occur to put a ship in mortal danger.

[Alan Gale]

The trouble with any mass transportation vehicle is that they still rely on a human being for the final say in what happens. You can have all the tech in the world but if the man in charge is a pillock then nothing will stop a disaster. After leaving the MN I drove buses and coaches for about 25 years. Most of them were enjoyable but there is always the risk factor inspite of my intense training for the job, (Class 1 PSV and IAM certified)I saw plenty of drivers who did the wrong thing and had problems. I also worked on vintage aircraft as a hobby, again most pilots are responsible, but there is always the odd one that takes one risk too many, A couple of fatal crashes whilst I worked at Booker were witness to that. Then of course we have Accidents like the Concordia, MH370(which is looking more like deliberate action now,) the Korean Ferry etc. all of these have human error as their primary cause. The technology exists to make Aircraft, Ships, and motor vehicles completely automatic, but the travelling public do not trust it. They want to see a man at the front in charge of their fate.......and the problem with that has all to readily been seen. They say the most faulty part of any car is the nut behind the wheel! It works for Aircraft, Coaches and Ships as well!

[happy daze john in oz]

The Sun Princess was returning to Sydney after a cruise on Monday. A few hours before docking an 80 year old passenger was missing, believed overboard. The ship put out a search which lasted for about 8 hours, he has not been found.
The ship docked late and did not sail again until the next day, passengers were put up in hotels overnight

To date there is no indication of what happened but the coast guard think his body will be washed up at some time. The problem is though that no one can say for certain how long he had been missing when the alarm went off.

[Shaun Gander]

My 4 day fire course at Camelshead in Plymouth many years ago has stuck with me to this day. I am anally obsessive about fire prevention.

I was amazed when I started working here in the US that no basic training (STCW95) is required until you reach the 500 ton class CoC.

Another tip is count the number of seat[backs] in front or behind you to the exit on an aircraft - you can feel your way out in smoke or darkness.

Also I don't think any fire department anywhere in the world has ladder equipment that will reach above the 7th floor - worth thinking about when booking a room.

SDG

[Captain Kong]

Also I don't think any fire department anywhere in the world has ladder equipment that will reach above the 7th floor - worth thinking about when booking a room.

SDG
.
. Hi Shaun,
my friend and neighbour, John Wallwork, ex Master with BP, had an office on the 5th floor of a new block in Saigon, now Ho Chi Mihn.
a fire started and the fire engines ladders could only go to the fourth floor, and he and all his staff died,
I watched the fire in a friends home on TV NEWS in Perth, I didn't know it was him inside until I got home a couple of weeks later.
Sad.
Cheers
Brian.

[Shaun Gander]

An awful scenario Captain Kong

After your post I did some Google searching and it would appear that here in the US the longest ladder is around 100 ft and some departments are quoting up to the 8th floor but I guess it depends how close to the building side you can get and the ladder angle.

SDG

[Captain Kong]

Last year we stayed in a hotel after my operation in Honolulu, we were on the 39th floor, over 400 feet above the street.
A fire notice in the room said ,,,, ,,In case of fire stuff a towel at the bottom of the door and wave a white sheet through the window. ,,,,,,,,,
I looked and saw only Unbreakable glass windows that do not open. I figured that there is no way a ladder would go 400 feet plus for the other rooms above. BUT Fortunately next to my door was a fire door fire tower and concrete steps going all the way down to the ground.
Cheers
Brian