Princess of Acadia grounded on reverse facet of river to terminal
JANUARY 29, 2015 — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) finds that upkeep deficiencies and lack of enough emergency procedures led to the November 7, 2013 lack of electrical energy and grounding of the passenger ferry Princess of Acadia in Digby, Nova Scotia. There had been no accidents or air pollution reported.
The Princess of Acadia was approaching the ferry terminal at Digby with 87 passengers and crew aboard when the incident occurred. In preparation for docking, because the bow thruster was began, the principle generator blacked out inflicting a lack of electrical energy and disabling the principle propeller pitch management pumps. Once the pitch management pumps stopped, the propeller thrust defaulted towards full astern whereas the engines had been nonetheless operating, inflicting the vessel to decelerate, cease and journey backwards in the direction of the close by shoreline till operating aground.
The investigation discovered {that a} deteriorated generator part prompted the failure of two fundamental mills and the blackout of the principle electrical switchboards, amongst different system failures.
The report says there have been two fundamental mills powering the principle switchboard when the bow thruster was began; nonetheless, the No. 1 fundamental generator was shedding excitation as a result of a deteriorated brush, inflicting the generator to supply much less energy. The No. 2 generator was unable to supply the extra energy required to start out the bow thruster, and the breaker tripped from present overload, inflicting the interlock to activate and disable the bow thruster. Simultaneously, the deteriorated brush probably started arcing, which might have shorted out that set of brushes and prompted the voltage on the No. 1 generator to drop till the under-voltage journey opened the breaker, leading to a lack of energy to the principle and emergency switchboards.
“On the Princess of Acadia,” says the report, “the corporate had switched to utilizing softer exciter brushes with the intention to scale back pricey upkeep of the rotor slip rings. Although the data from the deliberate upkeep program indicated that the brushes had been solely checked as soon as each few months, the crew observe was to test the brushes on a extra frequent foundation. However, with out data to doc every time that the brushes had been maintained, the intervals at which these duties had been carried out wouldn’t be obtainable by the crew.
Comparison of a brand new brush (left) and the worn brush from the No. 1 generator (proper)
“When a change of apparatus, such because the swap to softer brushes, is made, it will be significant that the brand new tools be inspected extra regularly and that the outcomes of those inspections be documented to construct a upkeep historical past. This can help in figuring out if any changes to the deliberate upkeep system are wanted. In this case, the swap to softer brushes might have launched new upkeep wants. However, upkeep and inspections of the brushes weren’t persistently documented, hampering the crew’s skill to precisely decide when the brushes must be changed.
“If upkeep and inspections of vessel tools are usually not documented with detailed and full data, there’s an elevated danger that monitoring of apparatus reliability and associated upkeep shall be ineffective for figuring out total upkeep wants.
“If maintenance schedules are not updated when critical equipment is modified or replaced, there is a risk that this equipment will not be serviced when necessary and, as a result, will not be fully operational when needed.”
The investigation additionally recognized that neither the bridge nor the engine room had efficient procedures in place to reply to the blackout of the principle switchboard. Because of this, the grasp was not knowledgeable that engine room personnel had been having problem restoring energy, and the engine room was not conscious of the urgency of the state of affairs.
This impeded an efficient response to the emergency.
The vessel had voluntarily applied a security administration system (SMS), nevertheless it didn’t present the grasp with steerage to proactively determine dangers or examine hazardous occurrences.
There had been additionally deficiencies with passenger-related duties in written evacuation procedures and with Transport Canada’s oversight to make sure compliance with laws relating to passenger security emergency procedures. As such, there’s a danger that these procedures is not going to obtain their meant goal. Previous marine investigations (M12C0058 and M13L0067) have discovered deficiencies within the oversight of passenger security laws.
Following the prevalence, Bay Ferries Ltd., the vessel operator, instituted improved working procedures for when the vessel prepares to reach at Digby. It has additionally put in a simplified voyage information recorder, which data bridge audio and knowledge navigation tools and different out there sensors. Llloyd’s Register, the vessel classification society, has elevated the frequency for generator breaker testing.
Read the report HERE
BAY FERRIES ACTS ON TSB RECOMMENDATIONS
Bay Ferries mentioned as we speak that it has already acted on or will act on all the suggestions supplied by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) in response to the grounding incident in November 2013.”Bay Ferries appreciates the work of the Transportation Safety Board and as at all times will stay devoted to steady enchancment of operations to guard the security of our passengers and our workers,” mentioned CEO Mark MacDonald.
The TSB report acknowledged a lot of enhancements Bay Ferries has made since November 2013, together with:
- Improved thruster testing on arrival at Digby;
- Better workers deployment within the engine room when the Princess of Acadia is arriving in Digby;
- A back-up battery energy provide to the vessel’s navigational tools; and
- Installing a simplified voyage information recorder, which data 12 hours of bridge audio and information from the radars, computerized identification system, and different out there sensors.
Prior to the incident, inspection of {the electrical} elements and the upkeep of apparatus in query had been carried out always as required by the vessel’s classification society.
Bay Ferries additionally knowledgeable the TSB that common communication occurred between the bridge and the engine room.
“Since this incident took place more than a year ago, we looked at what we can do better as a company and proactively took action. This report will help our company continue to act to ensure safety is at the center of everything we do at Bay Ferries,” mentioned Don Cormier, Vice President, Operations and Safety Management. “For more than 70 years, our companies have provided safe, reliable travel in the Maritimes, including close to 20 of those years in the Bay of Fundy. Every corner of this organization is committed to doing whatever it takes to uphold that tradition of safety for our passengers and our workers.”
