Master of passenger vessel blasted for breaching safety rules
Publish date: 13 September 2004
Issue Number: 1173
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Maritime
The master of a passenger vessel has come under fire from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for failing to properly plan his passage or take the advice of a local pilot while departing Townsville, even though it was his first visit to the Queensland port.
The Business Times reports the failure caused the Bahamas-registered passenger ship Astor to briefly ground on its port side as it was manoeuvring out of the harbour in February this year with almost 700 crew and passengers on board. The master also insisted on giving all orders to his bridge crew in Ukrainian, although the vessel\'s International Safety Management documentation required communication to be in a common language understood by all crew or in English. The ATSB also reported that the master had breached his obligations for safe voyage planning under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and International Maritime Organisation guidelines. View the ATSB report Full report in The Business Times
