The Dec. 30 accident that claimed the life of Sandy Hook pilot Capt. Dennis Sherwood prompted the International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA) to address the International Maritime Organization (IMO), highlighting the dangers of a particular pilot ladder arrangement called the trapdoor. Pilots from other organizations also have called for enhanced pilot safety measures from the IMO and member states, particularly in regard to the trapdoor arrangement like the one on Maersk Kensington, the containership from which Sherwood fell.
Trapdoor arrangements require a pilot to ascend a ladder to a platform, then climb to the deck via a separate accommodation ladder. The pilot ladder arrangement used on Maersk Kensington “involved a trapdoor … with the pilot ladder hanging from a bar near the bottom of the platform, and the top step of the pilot ladder significantly below the level of the platform,” said IMPA President Capt. Simon Pelletier in an address to the IMO on Jan. 17.
“This controversial trapdoor arrangement has long been considered unsafe by pilots,” Pelletier also said in the statement.
An IMO media representative directed questions about proposed pilot safety regulations to the IMPA. Current safety guidance on pilot transfer arrangements, enforced by IMO member states and contained in SOLAS Chapter V, Regulation 23, entered into force in July 2012.
Since January 2015, the U.S. Coast Guard has investigated seven incidents involving pilot ladders. These incidents resulted in seven injuries and one fatality, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Amy Midgett.
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