M.T. Sanchi Tragedy, Was it Another Human Error? – Part 1

RICHMOND HILL, Ontario - April 11, 2019 - PRLog -- The Sanchi oil tanker collision is one of the most recent fatal marine accident. The accident took place during the 6th of January 2018. Sanchi, the Iranian tanker which was loaded with super light crude oil, from the Persian Gulf for South Korea, just a day away from her destination collided with the CF Crystal a Chinese cargo vessel. After that, the Sanchi caught fire leading to multiple explosions and leaving all the 32 crew members dead within minutes from the accident. One crew member body recovered from the sea near the tanker on the first few hours having emersion suit on, and two other bodies found on the ship by the rescue team who could board the vessel for just 30 minutes. The additional cargo ship that was involved in this tragedy, the CF Crystal was damaged on the ship's bow, and fortunately, all crew was rescued. The vessel in the later stage continued to its final destination.

There are few questions in author's mind which needed to be investigated questions like, why the collision occurred? Despite the huge size of the vessel why not even one person out of 32 crew members could not be saved and thirdly why there were no any SOS or request of help from any person on the vessel which could have done through different communication tools and equipment?  What is the mystery of the missing of remaining 29 crew? The school of thought that can explain this tragedy of the collision is that the cause of the accident mostly was due to human error. Rapid explosions on the cargo tanks of M.T Sanchi could have caused damages to the living quarter (ship accommodation) creating toxic gas to be trapped in the accommodation. If such premise is right, then an improvement on the safety of living quarter of the crew for dangerous cargo carriers like tanker vessels need to be reviewed. This paper critically examines the causes that saw lives lost and property worth hundreds of millions of dollars get destroyed. And also how human error could have led to the deadly collision. New methods to improve weakness points reducing human errors' risk as well as new introductions on further safety measurement on dangerous goods carriers.

Introduction

Despite the fact that we are living in the age of high technological progress characterized by automated systems and artificial intelligence, maritime accidents are still primarily caused by human error. According to research studies carried out by several monitoring agencies, and scholars, reports have shown that 89 to 96 Percent of the reported maritime collisions are as a result of human error (Pazara et al., 2008).

There are few reasons why human error could have been the cause of the maritime accident. Those reasons are; first, human error could have occurred due to the possibility that the crew had deviated from the standard procedures stipulated by the relevant workplace organizations. Secondly, human error could have happened due to stress and fatigue of the crew given that they had to travel long distances. Thirdly, the human error that led to the accident could have occurred due to miscommunication amongst the crew members and those that were manning the operations and control center. Lastly, there could also be a miscommunication between both vessels' officers in charge of the bridges as articulated by Barbu (2016).

There are few questions in author's mind which needed to be investigated issues like, why the collision occurred? Despite the massive size of the vessel why not even one person out of 32 crew members could not be saved and thirdly why there were no any SOS or request of help from any person on the vessel which could have done through different communication tools and equipment?  What is the mystery of the missing of remaining 29 crew?

The school of thought that can explain this tragedy of the collision is that the cause of the accident mostly was due to human error. Rapid explosions on the cargo tanks of M.T Sanchi could have caused damages to the living quarter (ship accommodation) creating toxic gas to be trapped in the accommodation. If such premise is right, then an improvement on the safety of living quarter of the crew for dangerous cargo carriers like tanker vessels need to be reviewed. This paper critically examines the causes that saw lives lost and property worth hundreds of millions of dollars get destroyed. And also, how human error could have led to the deadly collision. New methods to improve weakness points reducing human errors' risk as well as new introductions on further safety measurement on dangerous goods carriers.

We should also bear in mind that two vessels are involved which increase the risk of the accident.  Therefore, having said that up to 96% of significant ship collision, and the suitability of weather condition at the time of the crash, supports the idea that the reason behind Sanchi and CF Crystals will be nothing but the human errors. Furthermore, toxic gas leakage into MT Sanchi accommodation mostly was the reason for the loss of life.

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