Australia

Investigation of problem ship begins

The state transportation safety agency has launched a formal investigation into a steering malfunction plaguing the government’s new Manly Ferry, which has been out of service for more than three weeks.

The three overseas-built catamarans were put out of service on 26 September after two of them, Fairlight and Clontarf, were damaged. complete loss of steering control two days in a row.

The three new Manly ferries ceased operations on September 26th.credit:oscar coleman

The Transportation Safety Investigation Service said the two accidents in late September were the latest in a “series of steering-related failures” and that an investigation would need to be conducted based on the results of a preliminary investigation.

Safety officials said they had received 19 “notifiable incident reports” on Emerald class ferries in the last 10 months, more than half of which involved “steering defects with no known root cause” notices. An Incident Report is an important event that a crew member must report.

With the new vessel grounded, French company Transdev, which operates government-owned ferries, has hired experts to identify the root cause of the failure and find a fix.

The Clontarf, which is moored at the Balmain shipyard, suffered a steering failure late last month.

The Clontarf, which is moored at the Balmain shipyard, suffered a steering failure late last month.credit:oscar coleman

Labor Transportation spokeswoman Joe Halen said safety issues with ferries built abroad showed the government’s procurement policy had failed.

“These ferries have more than one safety incident every month because the government has provided a totally questionable product,” she said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) issued a directive earlier this month barring three second-generation ferries from carrying passengers until the steering glitch has been fixed and verified.

Investigation of problem ship begins

Source link Investigation of problem ship begins

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