The pilot ladder was rigged the wrong way. The pilot fell and died.
On 30 December 2019 a Sandy Hook pilot boarding a container ship inbound for New York fell from the combination pilot ladder arrangement and died. The US National Transportation Safety Board found that the ladder arrangement did not meet the SOLAS requirements.
Words in this case
- pilot ladder
- The rope ladder with wooden steps the pilot climbs to board.
- combination arrangement
- A pilot ladder used together with the accommodation ladder on high-sided ships.
- accommodation ladder
- The ship's stairway rigged down the side.
- trapdoor
- An opening in the accommodation ladder platform through which the pilot ladder passes.
- strong point
- A fitting on deck designed to take the load of a ladder or line; never the rails.
More words like these in the glossary and in listening practice.
What happened
Large ships with a high freeboard use a combination arrangement: a pilot ladder up the side to a platform of the accommodation ladder, sometimes through a trapdoor in that platform. The rules say exactly how the pilot ladder must be secured and how far it must extend above the platform, so that the pilot can step from the ladder onto the platform holding a rope or rail.
That night the pilot climbed the ladder from the pilot boat in the dark and fell as he transferred at the platform. He fell to the deck of the pilot boat and died of his injuries. The investigation found that the pilot ladder was not secured to the ship's side as required at the platform and did not extend the required height above it, so the top of the ladder could move.
Pilots step onto and off ladders thousands of times a year. Each year several die. Almost every case is a ladder that is old, badly rigged or secured to the wrong thing.
Why it happened
- The pilot ladder was not rigged and secured in accordance with SOLAS regulation V/23 and the IMO standard for combination arrangements.
- The ladder could move at the top, where the pilot has to let go of one thing and take hold of another.
- Nobody on the ship checked the arrangement against the requirements before the pilot boarded.
What to remember on board
- Pilot ladder: steps whole and clean, spreaders in place, ladder secured to strong points at deck level, not to rails, and the correct length above the water and above the platform.
- Combination arrangement: the pilot ladder is secured to the ship's side at the accommodation ladder platform, extends the required height above it, and the trapdoor arrangement follows the standard.
- A responsible officer meets the pilot at the ladder with a lifebuoy and light, and checks the rigging before every boarding, day and night.
- If the pilot refuses the ladder, he is right. Re-rig it.
What changed afterwards
The case added weight to the ongoing revision of the IMO pilot transfer requirements and to pilots' organisations' campaigns on ladder safety.
Three questions
The kind of questions a knowledge test asks about this case. Keys 1 to 4 answer, Enter goes on.
Read more
Source: Fall from a pilot ladder, container vessel inbound New York, 30 December 2019, National Transportation Safety Board, Marine Accident Brief (2021). Find the report.
On this site: Pilot ladder and gangway in the glossary ยท Pilot boarding calls in listening practice.
Plain-English summary of an official investigation report. Facts and findings are the investigators'; the wording is ours. Nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for the report itself.