Arie Palmers

As a pilot in the Scheldemonden region of the Netherlands, I've seen pilot ladder incidents involving injuries and have developed an interest in pilot ladders and the way they are secured. I keep a tally of the non-compliant boarding arrangements I see in front of me on a daily basis, and I participate in the safety campaign conducted by the International Maritime Pilots Association each October. The finding of that campaign is that about 18-20 percent of the boarding arrangements are non-compliant with SOLAS, IMO and ISO standards. In my own tally the outcome is even more staggering: 47 percent of the pilot boarding arrangements I have to encounter are non-compliant.