View non-flash version
April 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt e international maritime community now recognizes that the many types of safety issues have a common thread in human factors. became evident that no one aboard the ship really under- stood how the very sophisticated INS worked. at lack of understanding, in concert with poor communication among the bridge o cers concerning the INS, created the opportunity for the o cer to make his mistake. In 2007, the containership Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge in heavy fog. Among the many human performance causal factors was miscommunica- tion between the master and the pilot regarding a symbol on the ships electronic chart. e master and his crew, most of whom were new to the ship, had not mastered the ships equipment or its safety management system. Both of these accidents highlight the potential for human error involv- ing systems that are intended to improve performance and reliability by providing better information and reducing the operators workload. Such accidents are sometimes referred to as technology-assisted accidents. Smaller crew = lower cost Another trend in the marine industry has been fewer crew- members on ships. While automation and changes in ship operation justify smaller crews in many cases, it is gener- ally acknowledged that ships personnel work hard and are busy almost all of the time onboard. In an e ort to reduce