Att. Kemal Guclu Erdogan
As it has been widely reported in the international shipping media previously, the 225-meter-long bulk carrier “VITASPIRIT” loaded with 62,623 MT of barley crashed into a historical compound from the 18th century in the Bosphorus Strait. The accident took place during the vessel’s southbound cross from the Bosphorus Strait on 07.04.2018.
It is no secret that the Bosphorus Strait is full of trickeries with strong currents and sharply curved narrow channels turning the place into a potential collision area, as history has shown. The element that added to the popularity of this accident before the press was the fact that the vessel had struck an 18th century mansion, potential scale of claims and diversity of videos/photographs evidencing the aftermath.
A team was summoned by the Turkish Marine Accident Investigation Board (“MAIB”) to investigate the circumstances giving rise to collision. MAIB is a governmental authority who examines marine accidents and publishes reports whereby the causes thereof are identified and recommendations are given to prevent similar instances in the future.
As per MAIB, the events leading to the incident were briefly as follows: The engine room personnel of the M/V VITASPIRIT observed a fresh water leak on the main engine’s cylinder no. 5 while the vessel was proceeding on her southbound passage from the Bosphorus Strait and was about to commence a 700 turn to port. The vessel gradually lost her engine power and the engines were ultimately shutdown. This caused the vessel to move ahead under her own momentum and continue turning left despite a starboard helm order. The pilot asked for both anchors to be dropped which was a request that was not applied until the last moment as the Master disagreed with the pilot, reportedly in the hope of restoring engine power. The vessel slowly veered towards the coast line before it struck the mansion and stopped. The vessel then restored power and anchored in a safe area with the assistance of the tugs of the Directorate of Coastal Safety.
The MAIB concluded in its report that late notification of the fresh water leak to the bridge, Master’s belief in having the engine power restored, failure to make an early notification to the Vessel Traffic Services to have tugs ready for assistance, lack of valves on the cooling circuit outlets of main engine cylinder no.5 and disharmony between the Pilot and the Master were among the causes that led to the incident. The MAIB then recommended to the managers of the vessel the assist crew members in better understanding importance of exchange of healthy information between Masters and Pilots, equip the piston outlets of their vessels with valves and provide training to the fleet crew for anchoring in narrow channels.
Engine failures are never desired but it would not be inaccurate to purport in our view that this accident outlines how critical it can get to have it on wrong time, especially when crossing narrow channels which then leaves the crew members with fewer number of remedial actions that need to be taken in a shorter amount of time. Another conclusion that we have drawn was that it was a narrow escape from a potential disaster since the allision was not resulted in pollution. The scale of a potential environmental damage could have been irretrievable in a Strait dividing a metropole of 20 million people into two. It is our sincerest hope that this accident will constitute a warning for the industry which will hopefully attract enough attention so that the risk of facing a similar incident can be eliminated in the future.
You may reach the full report at the link below:
https://ulasimemniyeti.uab.gov.tr/uploads/pages/safety-investigation-reports/vitaspirit-final-report-31-10-2019.pdf ( https://ulasimemniyeti.uab.gov.tr/uploads/pages/safety-investigation-reports/vitaspirit-final-report-31-10-2019.pdf )