Beware of the releasing wire in lifeboats

We have been documenting the dangers of lifeboats with a series of reports this month. The evidence demonstrates that these accidents overwhelmingly take place during testing and not during actual emergency use. Some of the culprits include failed releasing mechanisms, parting wires and faulty emergency stops which can result in crews freefalling nearly 100 feet in some cases.

One hazard receiving almost no attention is the releasing wire which is designed to lower the boat from the inside in a controlled manner. However, that's not what happened in the following incident on a Dutch-flagged ship.

The second officer was inside the boat and pulled the wire to lower it. At first, things went well with the boat lowering easily 3 to 4 meters at a time. Suddenly, the boat stopped for no apparent reason. But the wire began paying out into a coil inside the boat, which meant that the davit brake was in the raised position but the boat got stuck in the davits.  

The wire continued to pay out into a tangled ‘bird's nest' which the second officer grabbed. When he yanked on it, the boat dropped fast, tightening the wire around his hand. Four fingers were severed.

The Dutch Maritime Board concluded in its post accident report that the wire should never be coiled around the hand and that a totally enclosed boat must never be lowered to the water with only one person on board. A Safety and Loss Advisory Committee went a step further, recommending that there be no crewmembers aboard during a drill. Instead, the Committee recommended that the craft should be lowered to less than three meters above the water and then boarded by the lifeboat embarkation ladder. One Australian maritime organization goes further by strongly opposing personnel inside the boat when out of the water at all during any drill or maintenance procedure

Read more on lifeboat dangers in "Lifeboats and Rescue Boats: Life savers or death traps?" in our article library here.

If you've been injured in a lifeboat or rescue boat, contact an experienced maritime law firm at once.