Fatalities 

In 2022 there were two operational related seafarer fatalities on foreign flagged vessels.  There were no passenger fatalities reported in 2022. 

Detailed reporting on vessel crew fatalities is contained in the Maritime Labour Convention Annual Report 2022.¹⁸   

Injuries

In 2022, a total of 170 injuries of crew and passengers were reported from RAVs (38) and foreign flag (132) vessels (Table 6). Of these, 56 were categorised as serious injuries. 

The proportion of serious crew injury incidents on foreign flag vessels was 36.8% (42) in 2022, which represents a reduction from the 37.3% (59) in 2021. 

In 2022, most injuries were reported from bulk carriers with 43.6% (68) of incidents involving crew injuries of which 46.4% (24) were serious injuries. 

Most injuries were associated with operational access followed by maintenance. Although maintenance was more frequently associated with incidents resulting in serious injuries (Figure 23, Table A8).

Persons overboard 

In 2022, 10 persons overboard (POB) incidents were reported with 3 of these associated with the operation of the vessel which occurred during a vessel-to-vessel transfer.   These involved:

•  A surveyor attending a foreign flag vessel at anchor fell when transferring between vessel combination ladder to a small vessel. 
• Two RAV incidents both of which involved crew falling into the water when transferring between a tug and another vessel. 

Footnotes

^18. The MLC Annual 2022 report contains a detailed breakdown of seafarer fatalities on international commercial vessels in Australian waters including person overboard incidents. 

In 2022, 4.9% (187) of incidents involved a vessel consequence. 63 of these incidents resulted in very serious or serious vessel consequences. 

Figure 24 shows the most frequently occurring vessel consequences between 2020 to 2022. 

In 2022 the most frequently occurring consequences included contact (17.1% (32)) and hull damage (9.6% (18)). Fire was the third most frequently reported vessel consequence incidents in 2022 accounting for 9.1% (17). 

Incidents reporting total power failure decreased from 10.2% (21) in 2021 to 8.6% (16) in 2022. Similarly, incidents reporting vessels being disabled²⁰ also decreased from 16.0% (33) in 2021 to 7.0% (13) in 2022 (Figure 24).  

In 2022, 24.1% (45) of vessel consequences were associated with failures in power, propulsion and/or steering with 32.3% (20) categorised as very serious and serious (Figure 25). This presents a serious concern with planned maintenance shortfalls continuing to be a focus of AMSA’s education and inspection compliance activities. 

This is followed by operational shortcomings in the control or navigation of the vessel which were associated with 21.9% (41) of vessel consequences of which 25.8% (16) were categorised as very serious and serious. One very serious vessel consequence involved a vessel colliding with two tugs berthed alongside causing the loss of both tugs.²¹

Footnotes

^20. Vessel Disabled incidents reflect incidents where a vessel was unable to make way due to loss of propulsion machinery or because of a d total loss of vessel’s power. Total power failure incidents reflect occurrences where vessels experienced a blackout either for a short period of time before power or emergency power was restored, or for an extended period, however due to circumstances the vessel was not ‘disabled’ (e.g., was at anchor, alongside).

^21. ATSB Transport Safety Report Marine Occurrence Investigation (Defined) MO-2022-002. Final 22 March 2023. Collision involving the bulk carrier Goliath and tugs York Cove and Campbell Cove, Devonport, Tasmania on 28 January 2022

Between 2019-2022, 29.3% (957) of DCV marine incidents included a technical equipment failure with power propulsion and steering comprising 50.0% (519) of technical occurrence types (Figure 14). 

The majority of power propulsion and steering technical occurrence types (green in Figure 14) in 2022 were main engine and/or gearing failures (50.3%). 

In 2022, 81.6% of vessel system technical occurrence types (yellow) were mooring and anchoring equipment failures. 

The majority of engineering systems occurrence types (light blue) included fuel (28.3%), electrical faults (19.6%) and hydraulic system failures (15.2%). Electrical failures pose a significant concern noting the fire risks associated with faulty electrical systems (Figure 15, Table A6). 

Half of DCV marine incidents between 2019-2022 reported shortfalls in the operation of the vessel.  

In 2022 one third of incidents were due to shortfalls in vessel control and navigation (Figure 12). This is consistent with the 2019-2022 data which shows that 4 of the 5 top operational issues for every vessel class involved control and navigation operational failure (Table A6).  This was followed by shortfalls in operational access (61) and communication (34). 

Figure 13 shows a breakdown of vessel control and navigation and other operational occurrence types. 

In 2022, of the 347 occurrence types related to vessel control and navigation, 131 (37.8%) were associated with shortfalls in lookout/collision avoidance, 82 (23.6%) with vessel handling/loss of control and 40 (11.5%) with berthing/unberthing (Figure 13).