Ferry and cargo vessel collide in Belfast Lough

xtradel

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17293090

lorcan122

The transport sector for shipping is really been having a rough time these past few months, with all these accidents happening, what is going on?

Tabnabs

Is it possible to watch it on the AIS sites from last night?

gbee

Marinetraffic dot com and search Union Moon and you'll get a track from last night.

gbee

Stena Feronia track shows a normal entry and no hint of collision.

skipz

You can clearly see on marine traffic where and when it hit the ferry, it looks like a head on.

ex_infantry man

there tied up alongside eachother in belfast now

Poor Uncle Tom

Cargo Vessel's captain is being held for being over the alcohol limit.

Mickey Dazzler

http://gcaptain.com/captain-arrested-cargo-ship-collides/


The captain of a cargo ship has been arrested in Northern Ireland after authorities found him to be drunk when his ship collided with a much larger passenger ferry.

The collision occurred near the mouth of Belfast Lough at about 7:45 pm local time between the 1,543 gross ton M/V Union Moon and the 21,856 gross ton Stena Feronia passenger ferry.

Lifeboats from the Bangor and Donaghadee Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), who were on a training exercise nearby, quickly rushed to the scene to assess the damage.

The Stena Feronia escaped with relatively minor damage above the water line and a bit of scare for the 51 passengers that were inbound from Liverpool to Belfast. Luckily no injuries were reported.

The M/V Union Moon on the other hand did not fare so well. Not only did the vessel sustain extensive damage to its bow in the collision, but the captain was arrested after failing a breathalyzer test.

BBC has reported that the Stena ferry has now docked at the Stena terminal and the Union Moon was accompanied by the coastguard back to Belfast.

The 55-year-old captain is due to appear in court Friday and has been charged with excess alcohol by the master of a ship.

lorcan122

Why would someone, put people's lives at risk, by drinking alcohol and do there important job. It amazes me why people are so stupid.

bladebrew

gbee wrote: »

Stena Feronia track shows a normal entry and no hint of collision.

yeah i was wondering that, it looks like the ferry barely slowed down, while the union moon was drifting around for a while at 1 or 2 knots just off carrickfergus where they said on the news that the collision happened,

LiamoSail

lorcan122 wrote: »

Why would someone, put people's lives at risk, by drinking alcohol and do there important job. It amazes me why people are so stupid.

I'm not condoning it, but there are numerous reasons

We don't know how long the trips are that the crew of that ship do, or how many are onboard. They could be doing 5 months or something similar, on a ship which from looking at I would guess the conditions aren't all that great, most likely doing 6's (6hrs on followed by 6hrs off constantly), with the end result being they're overworked, fatigued, and need a release or some sort of enjoyment

The Capt. could have just gone up the road after a busy few weeks and had a few pints, and its easy to understand why

We also don't know how far over the limit he was, it could be a case he was only just over after the night before

It could also be the case that he had no regard for his responsibility, and had been getting away with being over the limit while on watch for some time

While no circumstance relieves him of his responsibility to be sober when on duty, people aren't robots and being overworked and fed up could have much to do with it

Nobody can go months on end just working and sleeping constantly, and if they are expected its inevitable that an accident, at some stage or another will occur, be that as a result of the person being over the limit, fatigued, or through lacking concentration at some stage

I'm not for a second trying to excuse the Capt's actions, just suggesting possible contributing factors leading to those actions

As an aside, doubt anyone here working at sea has never, at some stage, sailed with a Capt overly fond of a few drinks

LLU

Some footage of the ferry here: http://www.u.tv/news/Disaster-avoided-on-Belfast-Lough/2d61ec3a-ffe9-43c1-8926-7eab8480d0fd

Huge gash on the port side of the ferry 15 or 20 foot wide and over 5 foot high, you can see right inside. Luckily it's well above the waterline.

Tabnabs

lorcan122 wrote: »

Why would someone, put people's lives at risk, by drinking alcohol and do there important job. It amazes me why people are so stupid.

You've obviously never been to sea...

mp22

The one o'clock news reported that the captain of the cargo ship pleaded guilty to the excess alcohol charge.

johngalway

I wonder what the Union Moons usual activities are, it looks quite a small ship.

skipz

johngalway wrote: »

I wonder what the Union Moons usual activities are, it looks quite a small ship.

Could be anything going too and from Europe and England. Coal, turf, scrap metal, grain, fertilizer, spuds?
Was in Drogheda before it sailed onto Belfast.

goldie fish

MAIB report now available online. Obviously the captains drunkenness was a major factor, but the port control and VHF procedures did not do any favours either.

•Inappropriate course alteration by Union Moon’s master through impaired performance following excessive alcohol consumption.
•Lack of clear guidance regarding traffic flow around the fairway buoy.
•Lack of action by the bridge teams of both vessels to prevent a close-quarters situation from developing.
•Delayed avoiding action by Stena Feronia’s PEC holder through lack of appreciation of the limited time available.
•Sub-standard VHF radio communications and procedure leading to distraction and possible delay in collision avoidance.

Makes interesting reading.
http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/StenaFeroniaReport.pdf

Poor Uncle Tom

It does make for interesting reading, but there is only one item on the list that you could say, if it were changed, would most probably have avoided the collision, Union Moon Captain's drunkenness.

It's good that the other deficiencies found were highlighted though, god knows how many other minor incidents resulted from those which never warranted any reports of this nature.