Human Error In Marine Industry

Human error is sometimes described as being one of the following: an incorrect decision, an improperly performed action, or an improper lack of action or inaction. Probably a better way to explain human error is to provide examples from two real marine casualties.

Human error can occur in many forms and can even lead to fatal situations. There have been reports of maritime accidents that have occurred solely due to human errors. From small fires that can lead to big explosions to full on collisions, the scale of accidents that can result from human errors is uncomfortably large. The classic example of this would be the grounding of Torrey Canyon that occurred in broad daylight with seemingly no reason to have met that fate. But it still did so, just because the captain decided to take an unconventional path.

The reason why human errors play such a vital role in marine industry despite of excessive mechanization and technical advancement is that even with everything, marine industry remains a people’s industry. There are machines running on software programmed into a computer but you need a person on that computer to be looking into it. Error on part of that person means the entire chain

Vessel was anchored outside the Chennai Port area in Outer Anchorage, rather close to the beach, when cyclone Nilam closed the eastern coast of India on Oct 31. Port authorities said they demanded the vessel to move either north or east to the open sea. According to Indian media, vessel heaved an anchor at around 11:00 Oct 31 when the storm already hit the coast. Tanker was proceeding along the coastline and tried to head on to open sea, but didn’t make it with the speed of only 5 knots, and had to drop both anchors to avoid grounding. Anchors didn’t hold, and tanker was pushed aground at Besant Nagar beach at around 14:20 local