Human error in marine accidents: Is the crew normally to blame?

Abstract

This paper analyses the marine accident reports published by the USA National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) between June 1975 and September 2017, in order to ascertain the exact influence of the crew and/or other people involved (pilots, company, etc.) on the cause of the incident and to find out the types of errors made by them. Additionally, the mistakes and those involved are analysed together to verify the correct implementation of international regulations concerning seafarers. The results suggest that crew error is relatively uncommon in cargo and passenger fleets. This points to the effectiveness of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW convention). However, taking into consideration the high percentage of human error due to failure in communication and misjudgements during navigation in pilot waters, it may be deduced that the coordination among those on the bridge may be improved. On the other hand, crew error on board tugs exceeds 50%. This increase seems to be due to the difficulties of navigation in narrow waterways.