Lifeboat deaths

A tragic occurrence yesterday in the Baltic where 2 seafarers lost their lives and a third was badly injured in a lifeboat incident. They were apparently doing some maintenance on the boat when it released unexpectedly, the two deaths caused by injuries sustained in the fall. A report in English from the Swedish news site The Local (click here)

The Swedish police gave a statement saying that as the accident occurred in International waters they would not be carrying out an investigation. The flag state is Panama and the owner is in Switzerland. The accident will be most likely investigated by the Panamanian authorities according to their regulations (Click)

A search on “lifeboat deaths” or “lifeboat accidents” on Google spits up far too many cases where seafarers have died in drills, or during maintenance. I witnessed an accident myself as a cadet where an engineer and a deck officer were badly injured when a lifeboat released from one of the davitt arms and they fell heavily in the boat. Luckily for them none of the injuries were life threatening.
What is needed is a rethink of the design of lifeboats, a radical overhaul of the whole idea, where the lifeboat could be for example an entire deck that floats free. Something for the Naval architects and engineers to think about maybe, in the meantime routines for securing boats under drills and maintenance should be improved so that an accidental releases won’t mean accidental deaths.