Three die in accident on Viking Islay 1

Vroon Offshore Services Ltd has confirmed that three men died following an accident on board Viking Islay in September.

Said Vroon in a statement issued on Sunday 23 September: “It is with great regret that Vroon Offshore Services confirms that the three crew members airlifted to Hull Royal Infirmary earlier this afternoon from Viking Islay are dead.”

The dead men are: coxswains Finlay MacFadyen (46) from Aberdeen and Robert O’Brien (59) from Leven in Fife; and boatman Robert Ebertowski (40) from Gydnia, Poland.

Viking Islay, a 53m emergency response and rescue vessel, was supporting the Ensco 92 drilling rig at BP’s Amethyst Field in the southern North Sea when the accident occurred. The ship returned to port in Immingham where a full investigation is being carried out by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB).

Graham Philip, chief executive of Vroon Offshore Services, said: “Details of the incident are still to be established but it would appear that the men were undertaking an operation to secure an anchor chain. We are doing, and will continue to do, all we can to find out what happened. Our own investigation team has travelled to Immingham to work with the MAIB, the police and other relevant parties to carry out a full and transparent investigation.”

Subsequently, Vroon said it is continuing to liaise closely with the MAIB as it investigates the incident. The company confirmed that the men were found unconscious in the bow area after they had been undertaking an operation to secure an anchor in a storage area.

Although the cause of death will only be announced after a post-mortem has been completed, the Marine Safety Forum (MSF) in the UK recently issued a Safety Alert about the incident which sheds some light on what may have occurred.

Said the MSF: “Following a routine crew change, an OSV was two days into a trip offshore. Anchor chain within the chain locker had been banging against the hull and disturbing the crew. Two crew members decided to enter the chain locker. They advised the AB watch rating and arranged to keep in contact with the bridge via VHF radio. The watch rating became aware of a problem and raised the alarm. He then left the bridge and attempted to enter the chain locker with a breathing apparatus set but got into difficulties accessing the chain locker and collapsed.” All of the crew involved in the accident were experienced seafarers.

The Safety Alert reinforces the company’s Safety Management Systems (SMS) with specific focus on Enclosed or Confined Space Entry (ECSE) and the use of risk assessments and permits to work (PTW) procedures.
Specific points highlighted in the Safety Alert include:

• whenever possible, ECSE should be undertaken in port utilising specialist onshore resources, following the company’s SMS procedures
• any ECSE undertaken offshore should be authorised and controlled through the use of the company’s SMS, involving the use of risk assessments and PTW procedures and should follow the guidance in the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seaman (Section 17)
• ECSE should only take place once the relevant safeguards are in place, which should include checking the atmosphere, venting and gas-freeing the space, as appropriate, using suitable equipment by a competent person. If the appropriate safeguards are not in place, the work must not be undertaken
• as way of guidance, an enclosed or confined space can be defined as: a space in which it is foreseeable that the atmosphere may at some stage contain toxic or flammable gasses or vapours, or be deficient in oxygen, to the extent that it may endanger the life or health of any person entering that space. It may also include: a space which has the following characteristics: limited openings for entry and exit; unfavourable natural ventilation and is not designed for continuous worker occupancy; and would include but is not limited to cargo areas, double bottoms, fuel tanks, ballast tanks, forepeak tanks, pump rooms, compressor rooms, void spaces (including chain lockers), duct keels, inter-barrier space, engine crankcases and sewage tanks OSJ