Proposals put forward by Intertanko and others to IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) should reduce the risks faced by seafarers during lifeboat drills. In fairly quick succession, MSC’s 97th meeting in November last year, followed by the fourth meeting of its Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE) sub-committee in March and the 98th MSC meeting in June, considered and approved some important changes to IMO’s guidelines for conducting lifeboat drills.

One of the key changes is that drills “should avoid the physical activation of the release mechanism in order to avoid exposing the crew to the risk of accidental release of the lifeboat,” said Intertanko senior technical manager Gil-Yong Han. That text was included in a submission to SSE 4 by members of the informal Industry Lifeboat Group (ILG), of which Intertanko is a member.