Results of deadly Emerald Princess explosion at Dunedin released

[Kiwi Kruzer]

The results of the inquiry into the explosion of a gas cylinder at Port Chalmers is out .

No mention of any fine or reparation at this stage. 

Does this mean the lawyers will take over ?

 

Corroded cylinder caused deadly Dunedin cruise ship explosion
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/corroded-cylinder-caused-deadly-dunedin-cruise-ship-explosion

A death on board cruise ship the Emerald Princess was caused after severe external corrosion caused a nitrogen cylinder to burst  - and has prompted warnings worldwide standards are urgently needed for maintaining, inspecting and testing the cylinders.
A final Transport Accident Investigation Commission report into the accident on February 9, 2017, has been released this morning.
 

[The_Big_M]

Surprised they don't already have the standards in place for those cylinders, since they do for other gas cylinders. That's a standard occurrence, hence the standards elsewhere e.g. expiry dates/do not refill on regular LPG cylinders.

[MicCanberra]

Agreed, even 30-40 years ago, before the 'swap and go' came to everyone, bottles had to be tested before refill and any rust signs on the bottle would have it condemned.

[Chiliburn]

Nitrogen is a inert gas that is probably part of a fire fighting system or for flushing refrigerant.

probaly never been used and just forgotten about.

[MicCanberra]

We had Nitrogen bottles, used for testing purposes on gas lines. Always checking to make sure the bottles were sound.

[Docker123]

I think these were part of the system for launching lifeboats.

 

https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/commercial/safety/safety-updates/safety-bulletins/documents/Issue34-mnz-safety-bulletin-april-2017.pdf

[MicCanberra]

possibly, seems to be one use for them anyway.

[lyndarra]

Compressed CO2 or nitrogen is use for inflating lifeboats.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

UPDATE:

 

Princess were fined in court today - 21 Jan 2019

 

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/court-news/

 

$250k payout after cruise worker's Dunedin death

 

---A cruise ship company whose procedural botches led to the death of a crew member have been ordered to pay his family more than $250,000.

---Princess Cruise Lines paid more than $100,000 to Mr Navales’ family immediately after the tragedy, as part of a contractual obligation.

---"The commission . . . found that there is an urgent need for consistent and proper standards to be developed at a global level for maintaining, inspecting, testing and, where necessary, replacing high-pressure cylinders associated with stored energy systems on board ships."
 

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Kiwi Kruzer

[chengkp75]

As noted in the article, there are standards for inspection of these cylinders, just that in the view of the NZ Board of Transport, they are not being applied uniformly worldwide.  These are not thin sheet steel cylinders like your propane tanks for the Barbie, these are forged steel cylinders just like the ones used in oxy/acetylene cutting/welding applications, or large, commercial CO2 fire extinguishing systems.  They require ultrasonic thickness testing, and hydrostatic testing to 125% of working pressure every 10 years.  This is an industry (not just maritime industry) standard, and is pretty universal in my experience.

 

In this case, the nitrogen is used as a stored energy source, to provide pressure to the hydraulic system needed to launch the lifeboats (swing the davits outboard) should all electrical power fail.

 

From the wording in the article, and I haven't seen the final inspection report, nor the actual court ruling, it sounds as if Princess was found (actually pled) guilty of not following their own ISM (International Safety Management) code, which has to specify the training of personnel to do various jobs, the "permitting" (checklists, pre-conditions, and approvals from supervisors or shoreside) required to do the job, the "toolbox meeting" (discussion between supervisors and crew actually doing the job regarding the hazards involved and the methods of mediating those hazards that need to be followed).  I base this on the comment in the last quote about "procedural botches", though I realize that is an editorial comment, and it could simply be that the company's ISM plan, which is approved and audited by third party classification societies to meet IMO and industry best practices, was not adequate in this instance, and that the company actually followed their code, and therefore no negligence, but that the need to amend the code resulted in the accident.  Without seeing the actual documents, I can only speculate on whether there was negligence found.

 

The noted need for international standards must be addressed to the IMO for implementation into the ISM convention.

[MicCanberra]

23 hours ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

UPDATE:

 

Princess were fined in court today - 21 Jan 2019

 

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/court-news/

 

$250k payout after cruise worker's Dunedin death

 

---A cruise ship company whose procedural botches led to the death of a crew member have been ordered to pay his family more than $250,000.

---Princess Cruise Lines paid more than $100,000 to Mr Navales’ family immediately after the tragedy, as part of a contractual obligation.

---"The commission . . . found that there is an urgent need for consistent and proper standards to be developed at a global level for maintaining, inspecting, testing and, where necessary, replacing high-pressure cylinders associated with stored energy systems on board ships."
 

 

Not that great an amount really.

[GUT2407]

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Not that great an amount really.

Depends on what the maximum fine is

[Docker123]

Reading the article, most of the money is to the family.

 

The actual fine reported is $NZ15,000. Interesting when we have a push in Oz for criminal offence for industrial manslaughter.

 

[MicCanberra]

2 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Depends on what the maximum fine is

I meant for the family, I don't think $250,000 is near enough compensation for a work place accident, let alone if there was negligence on the cruise lines part.

[MicCanberra]

2 hours ago, Docker123 said:

Reading the article, most of the money is to the family.

 

The actual fine reported is $NZ15,000. Interesting when we have a push in Oz for criminal offence for industrial manslaughter.

 

Agreed,

[Grey Nomad]

It was mentioned that Princess Cruise Lines gave the family $100,000 immediately after the accident but what wasn't mentioned was that once the Emerald Princess left Port Chalmers a collection was taken on board and you could also leave donations at Guest Services.  We were on the following cruise on Emerald Princess and a donation box was still at Passenger Services and I understand that there was a considerable sum already collected by the end of our cruise, meaning something in the vicinity of $50,000.  This amount, of course, is only heresay.