Human error caused allision in Kiel Canal
The allision of the "Red 7 Alliance", today the "DSV Alliance", with the large southern lock of the Kiel Canal in Brunsbüttel on Jan 17, 2015, was caused by human error, a recently published report by Hark Ocke Diederichs of the Directorate-General for Waterways and Marine found out.
What was supposed to be a routine maneuver ended with the ship crashing into the gate of the lock at 9.42 , causing a damage of more than 750 000 Euro.
The ship hit the solid cross beams and was torn up underneath the waterline at the bow. Technical problems of the control system were excluded as a cause of the ship suddenly taking up speed upon entering the lock.
The "Red7 Alliance" was on the way from Great Yarmouth to Mukran on the island of Rügen. An hour before the allision she could already have moved into the great Northern lock.
But the pilot's view was hampered by large helicopter deck, and to be on the safe side, he prefered to use the southern lock.
Everything was running smoothly, the front line and the stern line were laid over the bollards, and the ship, 50 meters from the gate, should have stopped now.
Instead, it picked up speed. To have a good maneuverability the ship is controlled with two steering propellers. To stop it, both must be rotated 180 degrees, so that the propellers produce a reverse thrust.
However, one of the driving levers was in autopilot mode and responded by pushing forward. The other, in manual mode, responded, but produced too little reverse thrust. This situation emerged because the driving lever of the starboard propulsion had previously been placed on autopilot mode which was not noticed by the captain."
The cause of the accident therefore was an incorrect operation of the starboard proulsion, the report of the Maritime Casualty Investigation concluded.
A subsequent correction of the operator error would not have prevented the allision.
It would have been helpful if the technique would have referred to this operator error, or would perhaps even avoided it. This was recommended to the manufacturer.
The allision of the "Red 7 Alliance", today the "DSV Alliance", with the large southern lock of the Kiel Canal in Brunsbüttel on Jan 17, 2015, was caused by human error, a recently published report by Hark Ocke Diederichs of the Directorate-General for Waterways and Marine found out.
What was supposed to be a routine maneuver ended with the ship crashing into the gate of the lock at 9.42 , causing a damage of more than 750 000 Euro.
The ship hit the solid cross beams and was torn up underneath the waterline at the bow. Technical problems of the control system were excluded as a cause of the ship suddenly taking up speed upon entering the lock.
The "Red7 Alliance" was on the way from Great Yarmouth to Mukran on the island of Rügen. An hour before the allision she could already have moved into the great Northern lock.
But the pilot's view was hampered by large helicopter deck, and to be on the safe side, he prefered to use the southern lock.
Everything was running smoothly, the front line and the stern line were laid over the bollards, and the ship, 50 meters from the gate, should have stopped now.
Instead, it picked up speed. To have a good maneuverability the ship is controlled with two steering propellers. To stop it, both must be rotated 180 degrees, so that the propellers produce a reverse thrust.
However, one of the driving levers was in autopilot mode and responded by pushing forward. The other, in manual mode, responded, but produced too little reverse thrust. This situation emerged because the driving lever of the starboard propulsion had previously been placed on autopilot mode which was not noticed by the captain."
The cause of the accident therefore was an incorrect operation of the starboard proulsion, the report of the Maritime Casualty Investigation concluded.
A subsequent correction of the operator error would not have prevented the allision.
It would have been helpful if the technique would have referred to this operator error, or would perhaps even avoided it. This was recommended to the manufacturer.