Portland Bay’s manager, Pacific Basin Shipping, did not provide the master advice about notifying authorities as per the ship’s safety management system emergency procedures, instead focusing on the engineering matters. This probably led to the master delaying the notification and the request for tug assistance.
The proactive safety action detailed below includes revised emergency procedures, emergency drills outside of office hours, a fleetwide circular disseminating lessons learned from this incident across the company and a training video based on this incident as a case study that, among other subjects, highlights the importance of early notifications. Collectively, the actions taken are assessed as having adequately addressed this safety issue.
Pacific Basin Shipping (Pacific Basin) advised the ATSB that the following safety action has been taken to address this safety issue to ensure better compliance with company safety management system procedures by its shipboard and shore personnel:
