Blame the crew culture

There are two vessels(a barge and a Tug boat) lost during this cyclone Taukate in the Arabian sea, both could have been avoided. There are 49 crew missing and around 26 persons confirmed dead as of 21st May 2021.

 There is no doubt that there are lapses from the captain's side but there are others who has similar responsibilities who needs to answer to the families of these crew members why they failed to ensure safety, some of these responsible entities are,

 1.    ONGC - The field is controlled by ONGC and all vessels are under their charter, what action did the take to ensure safe operations other than giving standard instructions (in this case the barge had hit a platform as well). As the overall in charge of the field, ONGC should have been more proactive and should have set the bar high so that vessel owners/master is not under pressure to take safe decision.

2.    Cyclone Taukate had been under observation for several days and almost everyone knew the predicted path and other wind data which is required to assess the intensity of it and what evasive actions to be taken to clear it. There was no orders from ONGC or the vessel owners to take safe precaution other than standard ONGC requirement of "sea survival mode". This particular vessel only moved 200 meters from installation and anchored, anyone familiar with offshore operations will not consider this as a safe distance. Vessels before entering the 500 meter zone from any installations has to undergo stringent safety/operational requirements and considered as a critical activity, so the 200 meters from the rig is not a safe distance.

3.    Rig manager who has to ensure all installations under his management also includes its safety, and he/she has the full right to take any such actions to keep the field are safe. The 200 meters movement should have alerted the rig manager to take further actions.

4.    C/E now blames the captain but being a responsible senior officer he should have contacted the “Designated Person Ashore “(DPA) when the life of personal are at danger due to the misjudgment of one person. The reason for such a line of communication is to ensure that in such situations of imminent danger crew can contact the shore management directly if required. The lack of alerts from chief engineer or chief officer also shows a bit about the lack of safety culture on the vessel and the company at large.

5.    Both ONGC and the vessel shore management has qualified mariners who are looking after the operations from the comfort of their offices (or now may be from home), but no one made it a point to order the vessel to take safe action.

6.    There was only 2 days job left for the barge, so the commercial pressure could have been high for all concerned to finish the job as soon as the cyclone clears.

7.    All of the above shows the general safety culture of the entire operations needs massive improvements.

Now looking at these tragic events and comparing to the Indian Covid situation, then there are some obvious similarities such as,

1)    Every one knew the graph was rising as everyone knew the path of the cyclone.

2)    Halfhearted instructions from center to states, similarly like the instructions by the ONGC.

3)    Shifting the entire blame to the people and not on the management whose sole existence is to manage the risks, much like the Indian government.

4)    Commercial pressure on the crew , in the covid case it is mostly economic and religious pressures which the government has no ability or willingness to overcome.

(All opinions are anecdotal and from my own personal view)