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IMO passenger ship safety action plan hones in on damage stability

IMO passenger ship safety action plan hones in on damage stability
The International Maritime Organization's Maritime Safety Committee agreed on a revised long-term action plan for passenger ship safety with a number of elements focused on damage stability.

Matters relating to damage stability and survivability of passenger ships were referred to the Subcommittee on Ship Design and Construction for further work, including those related to the operation of watertight doors and consideration of double hull requirements for engine rooms. The Subcommittee was also instructed to consider the need to develop new SOLAS amendments to require damage control drills for passenger ships.

The Subcommittee on Human Element and Training was instructed to include enhanced damage stability training in its planned outputs.

And the MSC instructed the Subcommittee on Implementation of IMO Instruments (III) to complete its consideration of the report on Costa Concordia's 2012 grounding as a priority, to upload the 'lessons learnt' on IMO’s Global Integrated Shipping Information System and to bring to the attention of MSC's next session, in November, the contributing factors, issues raised/lessons learnt and observations on the human element factors involved.

In opening the 93rd session of the MSC, IMO secretary general Koji Sekimizu called for a clear, concise response to the Costa Concordia incident and said IMO's credibility depends on it. The general public and maritime community, and he himself, want 'simple answers to simple questions: What went wrong? What were the lessons learned? What measures have been adopted or will be adopted in response?'

As earlier reported, the recent MSC session also approved, in principle, the draft Polar Code and related amendments to make new safety requirements for operating in polar waters mandatory under SOLAS, with a view to formal adoption in November.