Report reveals crew workload issues contributed to near-miss between two ferries near Stockholm
A collision nearly occurred between two vessels near Sweden's capital city of Stockholm on October 4, 2024, because the master of one of the ships was exposed to an abnormally high workload for a prolonged period of time, the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (Statens Haverikommission; SHK) said recently.
On the morning (local time) of the said date, the locally-registered shuttle ferry Eskil departed from Ålstäket for a journey towards Strömkajen.
During the voyage, problems were encountered with alarms from the starboard main engine and it was discovered that these could not be reset. Therefore, the crew decided to go directly towards Strömkajen, where technical staff would be on site to address the problem.
While en route to Strömkajen, Eskil's master, who was at the helm, and the deckhand tried to silence the alarm, which rang loudly at regular intervals. In addition, work was done to try to restart the main engine, while maintaining a telephone conversation with technical support personnel.
As a result, the ferry began to inadvertently drift to port.
A few minutes after the starboard main engine was restarted, Eskil's crew spotted the Finnish-flagged Ro-Pax ferry Baltic Princess, which was almost directly ahead.
Eskil's master increased engine power to increase speed and turned the ferry hard to starboard with the aim of manoeuvring out of the way of larger vessel. All this was happening as the area was covered in dense fog.
The crew of Baltic Princess, which had earlier departed Värtahamnen, then noticed Eskil just off the starboard bow, and the larger ferry gave way by turning slightly to port.
When the crew realised that Eskil was turning back towards port (as seen from Baltic Princess), they executed a hard turn to starboard. This then caused the two vessels to narrowly miss colliding with each other, with Eskil eventually passing dangerously close across the bow of Baltic Princess.
SHK said the incident was caused by the fact that the master of Eskil was exposed to an abnormally high workload for a prolonged period of time due to the recurring audible alarms and the lack of knowledge of the technical systems on board.
The authority said that, due to the high workload, the master's attention was diverted and the ferry unintentionally drifted to port.
Since engine manufacturer Yanmar has begun work to enable differentiation of alarms, based on critical level, as well as the possibility of being able to silence audible alarms, SHK has refrained from issuing any recommendation in this regard.
