Recent maritime accidents have highlighted the importance of navigational safety. While the exact causes of these incidents are still being investigated, the increasing size of ships has made managing such incidents more challenging. Effective navigation relies on technical expertise and strong human skills such as communication, decision-making, and situational awareness, reports UK P&I Club.
What do the numbers tell?
Navigational incidents, such as collisions, allisions and groundings can result in significant liabilities such as pollution, injuries, or costly recovery operations. Although such incidents may not happen as often as some other types of claims, but when they do occur, the consequences can be devastating.
The report published by the International Group of P&I Clubs on claims involving vessels under pilotage highlights the severity and frequency of such liabilities. Over 20 years from 1999 to 2019, there were 1046 reported incidents, amounting to a staggering cost of US$1.82 billion.
Despite advancements in technology, several studies indicate a common factor – the human involvement:
- According to the Intercargo Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2024, navigation incidents (groundings and collision) are the leading cause of bulk carrier total loss – 7 (out of 9) bulk carrier grounding incidents were associated with the ‘human element’.
- Based on the analysis done by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), between 2011 and 2021, around 78% of the investigated navigational incidents were linked to ‘human action’. The report goes beyond the face value of this figure and focuses on the complexity behind human error. It mentions, “Conversely, human action is a consequence of the complex and dynamic socio-technical interactions between onboard humans, organizations ashore, policies, procedures and machines.”
Significance of the Human Factors
Human factors are crucial in navigational safety. The environment onboard a vessel is constantly changing, and managing the risks associated with this dynamic environment requires vigilance and awareness.
‘Human factors’ is a broad term encompassing how humans interact with their environment. In simple terms, it is about recognizing that humans have capabilities and limitations – they cannot be perfect and so we build an environment that influences them to do their best to achieve goals.
Societal, occupational, and organizational cultures can all have an impact on human behavior. People may have different perspectives on authority and rank – a dominant individual may not encourage necessary input, whereas a humble individual may not speak up when something is wrong.
Leadership can be delivered in a variety of ways. Positional leaders exercise authority by telling others what they should do. Instead, inspirational leaders communicate to others why it is important to do so. They genuinely believe in safety, and it shows in their daily actions, words, tone of voice, and body language. Achieving this requires soft skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution.
Assertiveness and closed-loop communication are essential. This means repeating back orders for clarity and confirming actions, ensuring everyone shares the same understanding.
A notable challenge highlighted in maritime safety discussions is the integration of pilots into bridge teams. Pilots bring invaluable local knowledge, but without seamless integration and effective bridge team management, there is potential for misunderstandings that can escalate into serious incidents. Miscommunication or an unclear chain of command can leave teams hesitant to question a pilot’s decision or voice concerns, leading to potentially unsafe conditions.
Investing in Training
The path forward for ensuring navigational safety includes investing in comprehensive training programs that value behavioral competencies as much as technical or operational skills. Such programmes should focus on fostering just culture, effective communication, leadership development, teamwork, and fatigue/stress management.
The UK P&I Club’s collaboration with leading civil aviation trainers CAE to offer Club Members human behaviour and decision-support training is an example of this evolving approach.
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Source: UK P&I Club
