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Nigeria: Imo Okays Guidelines For Lifeboats |
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Saturday, 13 March 2010 |
 The sub-committee on ship design and equipment of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has approved the new and stricter safety standards for lifeboats in order to reduce the number of accidents particularly those which have occurred during drills or inspection.
The draft "Guidelines for evaluation and replacement of lifeboat on-load
release mechanisms" will be submitted to the Maritime Safety Committee
in May (MSC 87) for approval, alongside the anticipated adoption of
amendments to the International Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) Code and
the Recommendation on testing of LSA.
The sub-committee recommended that administrations and shipowners be
strongly urged to use the guidelines to evaluate existing lifeboat
on-load release mechanisms at the earliest available opportunity, in
advance of the entry into force of the new SOLAS and LSA Code
amendments.
It has also agreed draft amendments to the Revised recommendation on
testing of life-saving appliances concerning test procedures for
lifeboat hooks, for adoption by MSC 87.
This new package of amendments and guidelines addressing lifeboat
release mechanisms follows intensive work within the sub-committee and
by the MSC, over a number of years, to address the significant number of
serious injuries and fatalities which had been occurring during
lifeboat drills and inspections.
Measures which have already been adopted to address the prevention of
accidents involving lifeboats, include:
-May 2004: MSC 78 adopts amendments to SOLAS chapter III Regulation 19
(Emergency training and drills) and Regulation 20 (Operational
readiness, maintenance and inspections), concerning the conditions in
which lifeboat emergency training and drills should be conducted, which
introduce changes to the operational tests to be conducted during weekly
and monthly inspections, so as not to require the assigned crew to be
on board in all cases (the amendments entered into force on 1 July
2006);
-May 2006: MSC 81 approves guidelines to implement the 2004 SOLAS
amendments: Guidelines for periodic servicing and maintenance of
lifeboats, launching appliances and on-load release gear and Guidelines
on safety during abandon ship drills using lifeboats;
-December 2006: MSC 82 amends SOLAS regulation III/19.3.3.4 concerning
provisions for the launch of free-fall lifeboats during abandon-ship
drills, to allow, during such drills, for the lifeboat to either be
free-fall launched with only the required operating crew on board, or
lowered into the water by means of the secondary means of launching
without the operating crew on board, and then manoeuvred in the water by
the operating crew. Also, the LSA Code is amended to require safer
design of on-load release mechanisms (hooks) of lifeboats (the
amendments to SOLAS and the LSA Code entered into force on 1 July 2008);
-May 2008: MSC 84 approves Interim recommendation on conditions for
authorization of service providers for lifeboats, launching appliances
and on-load release gear.
Source: Daily Champion
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