LIFELINE December 2014 - English

LIFE LINE The Newsletter of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF)

December 2014 December 2010

December News… Experience… Ideas… Information… Development…

2010 In this issue:    

an important new report on global loss of life through drowning improving ships’ recovery capability the latest from the IMRF’s crew exchange project and much more!

372,000

December 2010 December 2010 December 2010

That’s the number of people the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate drown each year: D more ecethan mb40 er people per hour. Every hour. Low- and middle-income countries account for more than 90% of this horrifying 2010 total, with the highest rates in the African, South-East Asian and Western Pacific regions. But drowning is among the ten leading causes of death among children and young people in every region of the world.

ecpicture embeisr The WHO data is the best available, but drowning deaths go unreported in many countries so D the incomplete. The actual number of deaths is likely to be even higher. The WHO’s report calls for a substantial 2010 scaling-up of effort to prevent drowning, and outlines lifesaving actions that can be taken by national policymakers and local communities. See www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/global_report_drowning/en.

December

The IMRF wholeheartedly supports the WHO’s call for action. “All too often,” says Bruce Reid, IMRF Chief 010 Executive, “Safety standards are too low or are ignored to make a living; safety information, such as2weather forecasting, is not readily available; or people in trouble cannot raise the alarm when they get into difficulty, or do not have the survival equipment to keep them alive until help comes. And all too oftenDthere arebno ecem er search and rescue facilities to help them: the IMO’s Global SAR Plan is far from complete.

2010

“We need improved data, to help us focus on the problems properly and, with our partners, implement really relevant responses. We need effective implementation of safety standards, so that accidents are fewer, and eccan emhelp ber less deadly when they do occur. And we need good-quality SAR facilities. With these things,Dwe reduce these appalling drowning figures. The challenge is there. It is up to everyone who can to take2it0up.”

10 The International Maritime Rescue Federation is a registered company limited by guarantee in the United Kingdom and registered as a charity in England and Wales Patron: Efthimios E. Mitropoulos KCMG, IMO Secretary General Emeritus

December 2010

Registered office: IMRF West Quay Road Poole BH15 1HZ United Kingdom Company Registration Number: 4852596 Charity Registration Number: 1100883

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

December 2010

LIFE LINE

December 2014

Editorial Welcome to the latest edition of your newsletter.

Contents 372,000

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On page 1 we note the publication of the latest WHO report on the often under-estimated problem of drowning. Aspects of this wide-ranging issue are, obviously, of fundamental importance to the IMRF. See ‘SAR Matters’, page 6.

Editorial

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Dates for the Diary

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IMO SAR guidance

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DanGerNed 2014

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*** It is now a little over 20 years since the Estonia disaster, in which 852 people died. Many changes resulted from the lessons learned that terrible night. We consider some of these results on page 8. It was analysis of this incident that led the IMRF to begin our mass rescue operations project: see www.international-maritime-rescue.org.

The IMRF in Canada ................................

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The IMRF in the Asia-Pacific

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The IMRF in Europe ................................

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Taking the plunge

5

Estonia also led indirectly to a review of the problems encountered by big ships trying to rescue people at sea. Regular readers, and colleagues who attended the IMRF’s mass rescue conference in Gothenburg in June this year, will remember the extraordinary story of Mohammad Mobarak Hossain’s rescue after more than 40 hours in the sea, and the injuries he suffered when run down by ships attempting to retrieve him. (See LIFE LINE, October 2013, available in the newsletter archive on the IMRF website).

James Kelleher’s story on page 10 looks at the same sort of operation from the rescuing ship master’s perspective.

The IMRF is pleased to have played our part in establishing a new international regulation that, for the first time, requires shipboard planning for such rescues. IMRF Members know about rescue – but they know too that they cannot cover all the world’s waters. Ships’ crews are a part of the global SAR plan we are working to complete.

I am delighted to be able to close with the news that Mobarak is now fully recovered and has returned to sea. I am sure that all who have heard his story wish him the very best in his future career. He was a survivor, against the odds. The IMRF is determined that there should be more survivors, and that the odds should be improved in their favour. There’s still much work to do!

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Rescue Boat Guidelines

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5

SAR Matters

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SOBRASA

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Surfski safety

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8

NACON 2014

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“Häire, häire, laeval on häire” .................

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Rescue at sea: ‘vessels of opportunity’ ...

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Bravery at sea

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World Maritime Rescue Congress

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Thank you, Normand Oceanic!

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Send us your news & pictures

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Dates for the Diary IMRF North & West and West Africa Regional Development Meeting February 2015 Date & venue to be confirmed: contact info@imrf.org.uk

IMO Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and SAR 9-13 March 2015 For details, contact d.jardinesmith@imrf.org.uk

World Maritime Rescue Congress

1-4 June 2015

The IMRF’s next Congress and quadrennial general meeting.

See page 12.

If you are planning a SAR event of international interest which you would like to see listed here, please send the details to news@imrf.org.uk

Dave Jardine-Smith news@imrf.org.uk www.international-maritime-rescue.org

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LIFE LINE

December 2014

IMO SAR guidance: a new IMRF service The International Maritime Organization (IMO) – the UN body for shipping, where the IMRF has consultative status – publishes a great deal of material on all aspects of shipping safety, security and pollution prevention. This includes conventions, regulations, resolutions and guidance relevant to SAR: the Maritime SAR Convention and the International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue (IAMSAR) Manual, for example.

Some of this material is published by the IMO for sale – and IMRF Members can benefit from a 20% discount on all such purchases: see the ‘IMRF Bookshop’ at www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org.

But the IMO also publish a wealth of valuable free guidance contained in Circulars, downloadable from their website. The problem has always been finding that information: you have to know where to look, and what you are looking for.

DanGerNed 2014

http://www.international-maritimerescue.org/index.php/home-imodocuments

What sort of advice do the IMO offer...?

The guidance the IMO makes freely available, and which you can now find easily on the IMRF website, covers a wide range of subjects, including:

Organised by the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS), two rescue cruisers and four smaller units, a unit from the Danish Naval Home Guard, and a cruiser from the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM) were involved, with other vessels acting as casualties.

o providing radio and satellite communications o non-GMDSS alerting and communications devices o avoiding false alerts o proper use of VHF

Now the IMRF is offering, as a new service to SAR organisations around the world, a library of the IMO’s SAR materials, freely accessible on our own website. We list all the relevant documents and we also provide downloadable copies of all the documents the IMO itself makes freely available, principally Circulars containing guidance on everything from recovering people from the water to smartphone SAR applications. We have divided the material as shown in the picture above.

There’s a full list, and the IMO’s publications catalogue, under the ‘IMO Guidance List’ button.

o maritime safety information

For the full set of IMO SAR guidance please visit the website to download the free material and, if you are an IMRF Member, call into our online Bookshop to make purchases at a 20% saving!

o providing on-board support

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

Danish, German and Dutch rescue units and crews met for three days in September, in the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven, to participate in the DanGerNed SAREX. They were supported by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief and a group of people posing as shipwrecked and injured persons.

o 406 MHz beacon registration o responding to distress alerts o long-range identification and tracking o maritime assistance services o on-board helicopter facilities o remote area operations o mass rescue operations o SAR cooperation planning with passenger ships o cold water survival o recovery and treatment of people in distress o medical assistance at sea o medical kit contents and use o training for major incidents o documents to be held at an RCC and much more!

Over 75 crewmembers, mainly volunteers, participated in four challenging scenarios, including a serious collision resulting in severe injuries and persons in the water, and a search for an aircraft that was supposed to have crashed on mudflats. The main aim was to exercise on-scene coordination in situations of high complexity and uncertainty with rapidly shifting circumstances.

The scenarios were scheduled tightly to increase stress to realistic levels. An additional benefit was the need to communicate in English.

Although the ‘language of the sea’, SAR communication is not part of everyone’s everyday vocabulary.

The participating crews agreed that exercising with their neighbours was highly beneficial. They are already looking forward to the next event! page 3

LIFE LINE

December 2014

The IMRF in Canada

…in the Asia-Pacific

…and in Europe

Over 50 representatives of Canadian emergency response organisations attended a two-day seminar held in Vancouver in late September with the IMRF Trustees, in town for their half-yearly meeting. The seminar was jointly hosted by Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCM-SAR) and the Canadian Coast Guard, at a venue on the harbour kindly made available by the Canadian Navy.

The IMRF’s annual Asia-Pacific Regional Development Meeting was also held in September, in Shanghai.

Presentations highlighted developments in the region and provided case studies of significant recent incidents, as well as introductions to new products and initiatives. IMRF’s global sharing of good practice was illustrated by a report on recent research into cross-border cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.

Society’s changing demands make it more challenging to recruit and retain volunteers for maritime SAR operations. This was one of the conclusions drawn at the IMRF’s European Regional Meeting held in Amsterdam in early November.

Discussions included the SAR implications of the opening-up of the Arctic to commercial shipping; the maritime SAR structure in Canada; and case studies highlighting the challenges of rescue in remote areas.

RCM-SAR provided an update on the standardisation of their vessels and a new proposed training facility; and Port Metro Vancouver presented on the Marine Emergency Response Coordination Committee, which brings all the port area emergency response stakeholders together, so that there is "no need to exchange business cards in the middle of an emergency".

In return IMRF Trustees and officers talked about the projects and initiatives that the IMRF and our members have under way, internationally or at local level.

“The value of sharing best practices in maritime SAR cannot be overstated,” said Randy Strandt, Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary President: “Our training standards, fundraising, SAR vessels and operating procedures have greatly improved over the past decade or so as a result of the unrestricted sharing of information with our SAR friends around the world, facilitated by the IMRF.” For more on the meeting, see: www.international-maritimerescue.org/index.php/regionalgroups/north-central-america-andcaribbean/canadian-sar-seminars-asuccess www.international-maritime-rescue.org

IMRF CEO Bruce Reid chaired a meeting of the heads of delegations of the SAR organisations attending to discuss how the IMRF can assist maritime SAR development in the region. The primary need identified by the group was for support for training and up-skilling their SAR personnel, together with capacitybuilding to enable local delivery of training in future: ‘trainer training’.

It was agreed that a training plan will be developed to cover on-scene coordination, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), and the use of English in maritime SAR; that a mass rescue operations workshop will be held in the region in early 2015; and that the IMRF will seek to involve more SAR organisations in these proposed regional initiatives. The subject of firefighting at sea was also discussed, with a need for expert advice identified.

Meeting materials may be found at: www.international-maritimerescue.org/index.php/the-2nd-asiapacific-regional-developmentmeeting#meeting-reports .

Roemer Boogaard, CEO of the Dutch lifeboat service, the KNRM, said: “The image of our volunteer rescuers being traditional seafarers living in coastal towns is an out-dated one.

But do we actually have a good idea of what our future demographic structure will be? How can we find enough volunteers and will we be able to train them...?

“A volunteer’s most crucial contribution is time; a precious commodity in this modern age. And, whilst coastal residents could once be relied upon for sound seamanship and local knowledge, this can no longer be taken for granted.”

The meeting also agreed that mass rescue operations continue to be a matter of concern and should be kept high on the IMRF’s agenda; and that systematic collection of data relating to survivor experience, and development of the increasingly innovative technologies available to improve operational performance, should both be encouraged.

In addition a working group was established to update the IMRF’s Training Standards for Maritime SAR Unit Coxswains, Mechanics and Crew Members. Newly appointed IMRF Regional Coordinator Jori Nordström, of the Finnish Lifeboat Institute, hopes to have the revised standards available early in 2015.

Read the full text of Roemer’s speech, and more, at: www.international-maritimerescue.org/index.php/imrf-europeanregional-meeting-2014 page 4

LIFE LINE

December 2014

Project update

Taking the Plunge Lifeboat crew members from 11 countries took part in the IMRF’s third annual international crew exchange this autumn. With the overall aim of exchanging knowledge, sharing ideas and building relationships between the voluntary institutions participating, the programme has four clear objectives.

The first is to exchange practical experience and best practice to support improvement. The event also helps personal development, allowing volunteers to acquire new skills, and serves as a means of transnational and trans-organisational communication. The fourth objective is improved knowledge of maritime English.

The programme is organised by Linde Jelsma of the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM) and is supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. Linde says: "It was a great pleasure to work with the national programme coordinators, who take their job very seriously. In all countries we created an interactive week with lots of new experiences and we were able to exchange cultures and extend personal boundaries. All 63 participants will go back and pass on their experiences to their local crews."

The participants and host organisations were the Danish Coastal Rescue Service (DaMSA), the Finnish Lifeboat Institute, the UK and Ireland’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS), the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue, the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR) and the KNRM. A crew member from France, two guests from Canada and five crew from Estonia also took part. The skills and experience gained will help save more lives.

For reports, comments and pictures, visit www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org/index.php/home-exchange.

The aim of the IMRF’s Rescue Boat Guidelines project, writes project leader Andrew Flanagan, is to provide an international standard for the safe management and operation of maritime SAR units of less than 24 metres in length, by identifying risks affecting SAR crews and organisations, then offering guidance to minimise or eliminate these risks. The guidelines also aim to minimise the impact of SAR operations on the environment.

Risks have been divided into various operational categories by the IMRF’s subject-matter expert group.

Mitigation strategies incorporate the use of training, procedures and equipment for each category.

Once complete, the guidelines will be available at no charge to members of the IMRF who conduct SAR activities, unless for commercial gain. They will assist both well-established and developing SAR organisations.

Developing organisations will be able to input their profiles into an intuitive web-tool, which will identify risks associated with their proposed operations and recommendations to reduce their exposure. More established organisations may utilise the tool as a reference to demonstrate compliance to a standard.

The guidelines are now in the final stage of production.

The first two parts are available now. They provide guidance for developing and implementing a Safety Management System and can be downloaded from the project page on the IMRF website – www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org/index.php/projects/rescue-boatguidelines. The expert group is currently evaluating and completing the recommendations, and work is well advanced on the web-tool which, it is hoped, will have the ability to match similar organisations’ needs and facilitate an ‘information share’.

It is our goal to have all risk reduction recommendations completed by the expert group by the end of January 2015. Two workshops will then be held. The expert group will collate all responses into a cohesive format, then a wider peer review group will rigorously critique the guidance, with two test case studies completed, on a developing and a developed organisation.

The completed guidelines will be launched at the World Maritime Rescue Congress in June.

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

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LIFE LINE

December 2014

SAR Matters This column provides a forum for LIFE LINE readers worldwide to contribute to debate on any relevant SAR issue. Have a look at previous discussions in our Newsletter Archive, online at www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org: every Life Line since 2010 is available there for free download. You can join in the debate by emailing news@imrf.org.uk. It’s good to talk!

In this edition we consider the World Health Organization’s latest report on drowning, published in mid-November: see page 1.

372,000, the WHO’s best estimate of the number of lives lost to drowning each year, is one of those figures it is hard to imagine. It may help put it into perspective if we say that that number is the equivalent of 1100 fully-laden Boeing Dreamliners crashing without survivors every year.

Or nearly 90 Costa Concordias going down with everyone aboard. Every year. Or, as the WHO say, it may be a more obvious disaster if we think of it as the equivalent of more than 40 deaths per hour, every hour. How long will it take you to read this article? Three minutes? At least two people will have drowned by the time you finish reading.

The chances are that they will be young people. The WHO’s statistics show that, globally, over half those who drown are under 25 years old; that drowning is among the ten biggest killers of young people; and that the highest rates of drowning are among children under five.

And the WHO point out that their figures are too low.

Data collection in many low- and middle-income countries is limited, and the way deaths are classified means the full extent of the world’s drowning problem is underrepresented: the statistics exclude deaths resulting from flood disasters and water transport accidents, for example.

But perhaps the worst thing of all is that most of these deaths are preventable. Margaret Chan, WHO DirectorGeneral, says that “the evidence shows that a range of interventions are effective at preventing drowning. These include the strategic use of barriers to control access to water, provision of safe places such as day care centres for pre-school children, and teaching school-age children basic www.international-maritime-rescue.org

swimming skills.” She also calls for better and more integrated flood risk management; improved boating, shipping and ferry regulations; and development of national water safety policies.

Not everyone who drowns unnecessarily is within reach of the maritime SAR community – but many thousands are. As remarked elsewhere in this edition of LIFE LINE, we’re all in this together. The IMRF’s primary concern may be with saving lives on open waters, but we share our lifesaving aim with others. A global partnership is required to tackle this global problem. The IMRF and our members are in discussion with other organisations such as the International Life Saving Federation (ILS), the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), Plan UK, Safe Kids Worldwide and Lifesaving Society Canada. We want to work together to make drowning prevention a global priority and to create a plan for concerted and united action, worldwide.

Together, we can make a huge difference.

To understand the true scale of the issue, more information is needed and better recording of data is vital. We believe that the solutions are relatively simple and inexpensive once the problem is properly understood at the local level. As a minimum, each country should have a national drowning prevention strategy, underpinned by a range of practical, effective programmes and interventions.

Wholeheartedly joining with our partners in welcoming the WHO’s call for action on drowning worldwide, the IMRF would draw particular attention to the loss of lives in low- and middle-income countries – where the WHO’s figures show the problem to be most acute – among artisanal fishermen and the users of water transport, including ferry passengers, and to the continuing severe loss of life among asylum-seekers and migrants attempting to cross seas, lakes and rivers to safety.

The IMRF exists primarily to help improve maritime SAR services around the world, and this remains a necessary task. But, as our CEO Bruce Reid says on page 1, tackling the drowning epidemic also requires improving safety, through education, information, and the effective implementation of safety standards. “Almost all water presents a drowning risk,” says the WHO’s Dr Etienne Krug; “Losing hundreds of thousands of lives this way is unacceptable, given what we know about prevention.”

It is unacceptable. The IMRF is committed to working with our partners to address the issues the WHO report has highlighted. We urge wide dissemination and consideration of the report, which you can find on the WHO’s website, at www.who.int. See Member Focus, too, on page7. page 6

LIFE LINE

December 2014

Member Focus: SOBRASA: Sociedade Brasileira de Salvamento Aquático We are delighted to welcome the Brazilian Society for Water Rescue to the IMRF family. Here IMRF Trustee and South American regional coordinator Jorge Diena (right) presents Joel Pedroso, SOBRASA’s president, with the allimportant plaque.

SOBRASA’s main focus is on drowning prevention and it is appropriate that we should feature them in an issue of LIFE LINE highlighting the issue. Dr David Szpilman writes: Drowning is a major public health problem in Brazil where on average of 20 people die daily, four of them children under 14. Brazil has a very high exposure to aquatic areas used year round, and the one of highest rates of death by drowning in the world. In 2011, drowning was responsible for 6,494 deaths (3.1/100,000 inhabitants) and was the second leading cause of death for those aged 1 to 9.

There has been a significant decrease of 37% in drowning deaths from 1979 to 2010, which can be attributed in large part to preventive programs which have been offered by the Sociedade Brasileira de Salvamento Aquático (SOBRASA). However, a recent study in Brazil identified the immense disproportion of the problem of fatal drowning in fresh water. This is partly attributable to the increased provision of lifeguards at major ocean venues.

Freshwater venues were responsible for 92% of all deaths, with a high predominance of males aged 15 to 29. [The WHO report (see page 6) notes that, globally, male deaths by drowning outnumber females by two to one.] These deaths usually occur in isolated places in the interior of the country, where the deployment of lifeguards is usually not feasible.

SOBRASA is a non-governmental organization and a Full Member of the International Life Saving Federation (ILS) as well as the IMRF, with 43 directors, experts on prevention, and lifesaving representatives in 24 out of www.international-maritime-rescue.org

Brazil’s 27 states. Our board of directors is composed of professionals who oversee state funded lifeguard services. They meet twice a year. This network includes more than 22,000 lifeguards and health professionals from around the country. Please visit www.sobrasa.org.

Preventive education is the most effective action that can be taken to reduce drowning death and injury, but delivering that education is challenging. For several years since foundation in 1995, SOBRASA has been working efficiently with the concept of engaging the help of nonlifeguard groups, using a strategy of ‘teaching the teacher to multiply the prevention message’. Medical students, physical educators and surfers have been receiving classes on aquatic risk management and drowning prevention. We are also starting a preventive action plan targeting primary schools, especially in inland areas where our current preventive information did not effectively reach.

One of our most efficient tools is an ongoing project at schools around the country where we have been using preventive beach and fresh water safety messages presented in two cartoon videos in an effort to spread the prevention message to children in a funny, standard, easy-to-disseminate and interesting way.

The project has four different parts working in unison in 40 minute sessions targeted at children aged 5 to 9 years. A lifeguard visits a primary school class. He quickly explains his job and the importance of drowning prevention. The cartoon is then shown. All the kids receive a comic book with prevention messages to read and to color in. The comic comes with a refrigerator magnet with safety recommendations aimed partly at parents, thus bringing the message into the home.

Recently we moved forward on a broader prevention campaign to reach all corners of our country, basically using the electronic learning process. The sharing principle of the Internet allows the value of a single prevention project to be multiplied, easily increasing the benefit with a lower cost for all involved. Moreover, internet-based education can be shared on a global level.

SOBRASA has been very active in realizing many different prevention projects. Details of some of these may be found at www.sobrasa.org, where you can also find safety and drowning prevention material downloadable for free. page 7

LIFE LINE

December 2014

"Häire, häire, laeval on häire"

Surfski safety Over the past few months, writes Andrew Ingram, South Africa’s National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has responded to a number of surfski paddlers in need of help. Almost all of them were hypothermic and in a desperate situation.

photo: Bruce Viaene

Local surfski legend, Dawid Mocke, who has 20 International Ocean Surfski titles and has been the Surfski World Series Champion for four consecutive years, made a passionate appeal, together with NSRI, for the paddling community to improve their safety precautions before there was a fatality (see www.nsri.org.za/2014/11/ safety-appeal-to-paddlers).

Tragically, on 15 November, during a surfski race off East London, competitor Mark Feather died while competing. After this NSRI has been asked by many paddlers for recommended safety precautions and tips on what to do if search and rescue is needed.

There is seldom one simple answer so we have put together a number of suggestions that we believe should be taken into account.

Weather and sea conditions can change fast and paddlers must remember that they need to stay afloat and warm for however long the rescue period is going to be. Even with emergency beacons and flares, a rescue can take hours, depending on place, conditions and accuracy of information. You can read the NSRI’s advice at www.nsri.org.za/2014/11/ paddling-safety-precautions.

Readers are reminded that hyperlinks are disabled in LIFE LINE. When pasting a link into your search engine, please remove any spaces inserted for formatting purposes.

NACON 2014 The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary held their 2014 national conference in Florida in August. In addition to training and discussion sessions a highlight of the conference was an international roundtable led by Brian McArdle, the Auxiliary’s Director of International Affairs, and attended by representatives of volunteer SAR organizations from around the world.

Adml Zukunft, Brian McArdle and IMRF Chairman Michael Vlasto

The roundtable included the sharing of ideas and best practices, and an update on mass rescue operations and new lifesaving procedures by IMRF Trustees Michael Vlasto and Rolf Westerström. US Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul F Zukunft visited the roundtable and noted the importance of maintaining a strong relationship between volunteer organizations around the world.

Contact Brian McArdle at bmcar111@aol.com for details of NACON 2015. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

That is "Alarm, alarm, there is alarm on the ship" in Estonian. That was the only warning given to the passengers aboard MS Estonia before she turned on her side and sank in the Baltic Sea on 28 September 1994 – 20 years ago.

There was very little time for anything more. But few of the passengers understood Estonian.

Estonia’s bow doors failed at about 0115 while she was on passage from Tallinn to Stockholm. The weather was described by another ferry master in the area as “normally bad” for the time of year.

Seas swept rapidly into the open vehicle decks and the ship listed quickly and heavily to starboard.

A broken distress call was made at 0122. By 0130 Estonia was lying on her side. By 0150 she had vanished from the radar screens of the astonished shipping that was turning to her aid.

There were 803 passengers and 186 crew aboard her that dark night: 989 people in all. The catastrophic listing of the ship meant that many of them never had a chance of getting out; but the investigating commission found that up to 310 may have done so. About half of these made it into liferafts – many of which failed to inflate properly.

There had been no time to launch the ship’s boats. The water was cold (c.10°C/50°F) and many people were poorly dressed or had no lifejackets.

It was, in the jargon, an uncontrolled abandonment. People who fell or jumped into the water without lifejackets or who were badly injured, said the commission, “succumbed so quickly that no rescue unit could have reached them in time.” (continued page 9) page 8

LIFE LINE (continued from page 8)

The first ship to arrive on scene did so at 0212, about 20 minutes after Estonia sank. Four more passenger ferries followed. The first rescue helicopter did not arrive until about 70 minutes after the sinking. During the next three hours six more vessels and six more helicopters arrived.

138 people were rescued (one died in hospital later). Of these, 104 were picked up by helicopters, and only 34 by ships, although the ships were on scene long before the helicopters. The ships were not prepared for rescue.

Their ‘rescue boats’ could not be launched in the conditions: they had to improvise. The ferry Isabella rescued the largest number – 16 – of those recovered by ships, by deploying her own evacuation slides and hauling people up them. But a single Finnish Border Guard Super Puma helicopter rescued 44.

How have things improved, 20 years on? What have we learned?

In many ways, at least on ships on international voyages, things are better.

Ship design and damage stability and crew training in crisis and crowd management have been improved. SAR cooperation plans have been developed between passenger ships, their operators and SAR services. Passenger ships now carry air band radios, enabling them to talk to aircraft not fitted with marine band. Ro-ro passenger ships of the type that responded to the Estonia disaster were quickly required to be fitted with means of rescue and, after long and sometimes difficult debate, all ships on international voyages are now required to plan for recovery of people from the water (see page 10).

But not everything is as ready as it might be. Mass rescue operations are rare events: maintaining enough dedicated capability to respond to them is impractical.

There is consequently a ‘capability gap’, which needs to be filled when such an event eventually occurs. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

December 2014

The IMRF has played its part in helping to improve readiness, and to fill that ‘capability gap’. We took a leading role in the debate on the recovery regulation, for example, and helped prepare detailed guidance when the International Maritime Organization (IMO) conducted a full review of passenger ship safety some years after the Estonia went down.

Now, with our mass rescue operations (MRO) project, we are seeking to improve things still further, providing a focus on the subject and a forum for discussion. We have run three maritime mass rescue conferences, seeking to learn the lessons of such high consequence incidents.

Our first, in 2010, was addressed by Esa Mäkelä, master in 1994 of the ferry Silja Europa and on scene commander (as the role was then called) for the response to the Estonia disaster. We were the first to ask him to speak about his experience, nearly 16 years after the event. Learning lessons can be a difficult process.

From our conferences, and guided by a subject-matter expert group, we are developing mass rescue guidance covering all the main aspects of such events so that planners and responders can better prepare. Filling that ‘capability gap’, for instance, can be a matter of sharing resources internationally; of identifying and utilising additional resource such as shipping in the area; or of extending survival times by providing on-scene support.

From this gathered and shared experience we have developed a mass rescue workshop package, designed to bring the main players together to talk through the issues, examining both the problems and potential solutions. Good communication, before and after such difficult cases as well as during them, is vital to good response.

Disasters like that which befell Estonia are thankfully rare. But their rarity is part of the problem: it is difficult to maintain readiness.

The IMRF’s MRO project – getting the right people talking together and providing them with guidance based on accumulated experience – helps to overcome that difficulty.

It is 20 years since Estonia – and yes, things have improved.

But there are still improvements to be made, and we need to focus on them. For, with mass rescue operations, it’s not really a matter of ‘if’. It’s a matter of ‘when’.

For more information visit www.international-maritimerescue.org and click on ‘Projects’. page 9

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December 2014

destroyed. The engine was seized and they were basically adrift in extreme conditions. The wind was southsouthwest blowing at a steady Force 8, sometimes a Force 9. Seas were 20-25 feet. It looked to only get worse with the approach of a cold front.

I said ok, we’re on our way. We had about 7 hours to plan and prepare. I talked extensively to the Chief Mate and the Chief Engineer and told them the situation. We all did it as a team and we figured out what the best approach would be and how to best prepare the deck.

Rescue at sea: ‘vessels of opportunity’ On 1 July 2014 a new international regulation came into force: SOLAS III/17.1. This regulation requires all ships on international voyages to have ship-specific plans and procedures for recovery of persons from the water. An IMO Resolution recommends that administrations require the same capability on other types of ship too.

The IMRF was in the forefront of the development of this new regulation at the IMO and of the guidance that accompanies it: the revised Pocket Guide to Recovery Techniques is about to be published by the IMO. This will be available to IMRF Members at a 20% discount from our online bookshop: see the IMRF website.

Why have we been so interested in this? Because, over large areas of the world, only merchant ships will be available to rescue people or, in mass rescue operations, dedicated SAR units will need their help. Masters have long been required by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention to help people in distress if they can. The new regulation and guidance should improve their capability to do so. *** A fine example of such a rescue by a ‘vessel of opportunity’ was recently reported by Maritime Executive Magazine (see www.maritime-executive.com).

The following excerpts from the story are reprinted by kind permission of the Editor-in-Chief.

Horizon Lines’ container ship Horizon Reliance was on passage to Hawaii from the US West Coast one March morning when the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at Honolulu informed her of a sailboat in distress. Captain James Kelleher takes up the story: Although the sailboat wasn’t on our track it was in our general direction just southwest of us and the calculated distance was about 148 miles away. We figured out an ETA to that point. We received another call from the JRCC: it was a 38-ft sailboat, with three persons onboard aged 9, 27, and 31. They were dismasted, all the sails were www.international-maritime-rescue.org

We didn’t really know what the conditions were until we got up there – they were dismasted; the mast was lying on the deck. As luck would have it my Chief Engineer is a very experienced offshore sailor. He said first of all we want that mast gone – cut the rigging and get rid of that mast. Then we’d be able to get a line to them by firing it over the boat.

We got life rings and line throwing apparatus ready and pilot ladders rigged on both sides of the vessel. We had a back-up plan to use the accommodation ladder in case they were too fatigued. We got the deck gang to test everything. We prepped as best we could. What concerned me the most was the weather. We were in extreme conditions for a small boat. It was just flat out horrible.

Shortly after 2300 the JRCC patched me through to the sailboat and I was able to tell them what our plan was, how I planned to approach them and what I expected to do. I wanted the boy to come onboard first and then the two adults. I told them that if they were unable to climb the ladder – because in seas that rough the ladder would be going up and down alongside the hull – we would get them with the stores cranes individually.

At 0103 we spotted a light. We tried to ascertain its distance but the boat was so low to the water with a fiberglass hull, we never picked it up on radar; it just kept getting lost in the troughs of the waves. I slowed down as we approached. I had the wind basically dead ahead, I approached from the downwind side and I had the boat on my port bow. My plan was to approach at bare steerage way – which became very difficult. Fortunately, other than the spray, the visibility was fairly good.

The boat appeared to have taken on a serious amount of water and was rolling violently. All three occupants had their lifejackets on and they were in the cockpit. My plan was to make a slow turn to port and bring them into the lee of my vessel. But just as I slowly began this turn a much larger set of waves came in. (continued on page 11) page 10

LIFE LINE (continued from page 10)

As the boat slid aft along the face of the second wave it came right into the ship. The ship rose up and pitched down. Now: my forward draft is 28 feet [8.5 metres] – and when we came out of that second sea the bow came completely out of the water, the entire bulb was exposed, and the bulb came up directly underneath the sailboat. We contacted the forward portion and the boat slid off as we pitched back down, right along the starboard side of the fo’c'sle head, until they were lying off of the ship perhaps 40 or 50 feet [12-15m] from the starboard bow. The whole crew was assembled – we shot a line over the boat. I guess they never saw it or were unable to retrieve it. Then the boat sank. So now I had three persons in the water. Of course plans A and B were now shot to hell.

The wind was blowing 40-50 knots and you could not stand on deck without holding on. It was moonlit – the front hadn't approached yet – so we were fairly well lit. We had lights trained on them from the bridge wings, we had lights on deck, and we had 6 or 8 life rings in the water with lights on them bobbing around. But the people became separated.

I'm heading into the wind and I have to maintain my position – the whole time I'm ringing bells and using the thruster and the rudder – I can't have sternway or headway because I have people alongside. The bow is heaving up and there’s this huge wash: it's a cauldron up there by the bow. The boy and one of the men were pushed towards the ship and forward and the next thing I know they're gone.

They went around the bow, over to the port side of the ship. Now I had my whole crew up on the fo’c'sle head and the starboard side, so we had plenty of eyes on the man still on that side: we were going to get him. I ran over to port and I could see the others. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

December 2014 They were drifting very fast away from the vessel. I immediately assigned the third mate to keep the spotlight on them. I told him “Do not take your eyes off them – we can't lose them – we can't.” We couldn't see anything in this weather. If we lost sight of them, they were gone.

I ran over again to the starboard side and maneuvered the vessel to hold my position and get that man onboard. It took another 15 or 20 minutes until they got a line to him from the fo’c'sle head. We walked that aft and got him under the ladder. The Bosun was at the end of the gangway and he grabbed him.

I rang the telegraph ahead, put the wheel hard over, put the thruster hard to port. I had to get the other two. Thank goodness we still had their light in sight, maybe a half mile away. It took me a while to get to them which is the reason I think that. There's no way to judge the distance of this light.

Right at this moment the front hits.

The sky goes black, the rain starts coming down torrentially, the winds kick up 50 or 55 knots. The rain is in the spotlights: it’s horizontal and visibility shuts down. But we were still able to see the light. I was able to head up towards what I thought to be at least one person – and I was just praying that there were two. I kept asking the Chief Mate "Are there two people?" The next half hour of my life was just pure hell. I didn't think that the kid was with him. I had no way of knowing at this point.

I continued to get closer. I didn't want to be up wind because now I have people in the water. If the ship had set down on them we could suck them under and they would be finished. My plan was to stay downwind. I was able to accomplish that. But the drift rates for a ship and a person floating in the water are

entirely different in these high winds. I couldn't get alongside him.

As hard as I tried to will the ship to starboard, she wouldn't go. The only other thing that I knew to do was to start backing and filling. I can't even begin to describe what the motion was like; the propeller was coming completely out of the water and the entire flat after section was slamming down into the ocean. It was horrible.

But it worked. The backing and filling maneuver worked. Ever so slowly she started to come into the wind and to starboard, closer and closer and closer. That's when we heard the kid along with his father and I knew we had them both. Boy, I'll tell you that was a moment.

Now I have to stop the ship in 30 foot seas and 50 knot winds. To this day I don't know how I did it. But as fate would have it I stopped the ship and there they were five feet off the hull and they grabbed the line. We walked them aft. It was 0324. First, the father put his son on the ladder and as soon as he did he got sucked away as the sea heaved up another 20 or 25 feet. But the kid was on the ladder and he climbed up and the Bosun grabbed him on the gangway.

Then the father was able to grab the ladder and he climbed up a few steps and we grabbed him and we had them both onboard.

My whole deck gang was in tears. It could so easily have gone the other way. But we did what we had to do.

I have a great team: they did an outstanding job.

They did. The IMRF congratulates Capt Kelleher (seen with the survivors) and the crew of Horizon Reliance.

.

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LIFE LINE

December 2014

Bravery at Sea A year to the day after surviving an explosive fire which threatened the lives of the 32 people on board his vessel, Captain Andreas Kristensen of Britannia Seaways received the 2014 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea, at a ceremony on 17 November at the IMO HQ in London.

The ferry was on passage through heavy seas from Sørreisa to Bergen in Norway. 20 crew and 12 passengers were aboard. The cargo included diesel, aviation fuel and gasoline in jerry-cans and tank containers. The fire broke out on the open deck due to shifting of cargo and evolved aggressively with explosive eruptions and flames leaping 30 metres high.

The crew fought the fire for hours, battling extreme heat on a rolling ship, 70 nautical miles from shore, as gales fanned the flames. An explosion below deck caused the engine control system to break down, but the crew succeeded in transferring operations to manual mode and kept the engines, auxiliary engines and fire pumps running, while controlling the huge amounts of water coming into the cargo holds from the firefighting.

Accepting the award from IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu (with the crew of Britannia Seaways

World Maritime Rescue Congress

pictured behind), Capt Kristensen said modestly: “I watched the fire from a safe distance on the bridge while the crew were fighting it on the open deck in high seas facing an intense situation with extreme heat.

Or striving in the engine room in order to avoid a blackout, which could have had fatal consequences for the ship, the people aboard and the environment. I’m extremely proud to be Captain of this crew that managed so well under those extreme circumstances.”

Capt Kristensen also praised the Norwegian SAR services, his company, DFDS, for their focus on safety and emergency response – and the IMO itself, for setting the necessary framework for the industry.

“We’re all in this together,” he said. *** The IMO are now seeking nominations for their 2015 Awards.

For more information, please email us at info@imrf.org.uk.

Planning for the IMRF’s next World Maritime Rescue Congress – to be held in Bremerhaven, Germany, 1-4 June 2015 – is well under way. And now is the time for you to get involved!

This premier event in global SAR is held every four years, hosted by an IMRF Member. This time our hosts are the Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger (DGzRS – the German Maritime SAR Service), who th are celebrating their 150 anniversary in 2015. The IMRF’s Quadrennial General Meeting, which helps set our strategy for the next four years, is held at the same time.

You can read all about it at:

www.international-maritimerescue.org/index.php/homewmrc Submit a paper, secure exhibition space or a sponsorship opportunity – but make sure you book your place!

There will be much more about the Congress and the QGM in the February edition of LIFE LINE If you don’t receive LIFE LINE direct, please email info@imrf.org.uk or telephone +44 (0)1569 767405.

Thank you, Normand Oceanic!

And finally...

Subsea 7, Total and the multi-purpose vessel Normand Oceanic, currently working in the North Sea, have donated £2500 to the IMRF at the request of the winner of a health & safety competition held on board.

We hope that you have found this issue of LIFE LINE informative and interesting. If you would like to contribute articles and pictures about your news, projects, events, ideas or lessons learned, please send them to news@imrf.org.uk

Thank you very much!

LIFE LINE www.international-maritime-rescue.org

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