By Angus Mitchell, Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Mr Mitchell writes:
The responsibility for the investigation of shipping accidents and incidents that occur within Australian waters or involve Australian-flagged vessels has rested with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) since its formation in 1999, with the amalgamation of the former Maritime Accident Investigation Unit with the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (and the creation of a national rail investigation capability).
In that time, the ATSB has conducted over 200 independent “no blame” investigations into shipping accidents and incidents.
Most recently, these have included highlighting underlying safety issues with the effectiveness of ECDIS type-specific training, ECDIS software updates and the use of a single point feature to represent relatively large physical features on electronic navigational charts. The ATSB held an investigation into the grounding of the patrol vessel Roebuck Bay in 2017. The ATSB has stressed the importance of safe and effective container stowage planning with the investigation into the loss of 81 containers from the YM Efficiency in 2018.
