SEASPAN FRASER

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Latest news

Release after detention in Indonesia

The 'Seaspan Fraser' raached Singapore on Oct 31, 2019, after a month-long detention at Tanjung Uban, Bintan. The ship is in charter of the PT Cosco Shipping Lines Indonesia and deployed on the Surabaya – Singapore loop. On Sep 29 it left Surabaya, bound for Singapore, but was seized by Indonesian Navy in the Singapore Strait and taken to the Tanjung Uban anchorage, with a cargo of 1.700 TEU containers on board, containing different types of commodities, including food and fishery products in reefer containers. COSCO Indonesia could not say something regarding the condition of the goods, but was expecting claims and disputes.

Crew member died due to safety issues

A 52-year-old Filipino who fell from the "Madinah" near Lyttelton in July 2015 was not wearing a life jacket and had been clipped to a broken wire. His body was never found. The previous day a man had been seriously injured at Port Otago when a crane toppled whilst unloading the ship. The ship was three kilometres from Lyttelton port when the man, who was foreman of the Madinah's deck crew, was preparing the ship to dock. While setting up the accommodation ladder, a flight of steps running down the ship's side, he lost his balance and fell into the harbour. The man was last seen swimming towards a lifebuoy thrown into the water by a crew member. The man's hard hat and gloves were found in the water 20 minutes after he fell. Boats and a helicopter searched for several hours but could not find him. An investigation by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has found that there were several safety issues which led to his death. The man had been wearing a safety harness but it was clipped to a severely corroded wire, which had not been installed properly. The wire was also plastic-coated, meaning it was unlikely the damage was obvious. Other crew members told investigators that they did not clip themselves to the wire because it looked unsafe. There was no procedure for setting up the accommodation ladder. Another crew member had gone to collect life jackets but the man had started working before he returned. Not wearing a life jacket had been the greatest contributor to the accident. A buoyancy vest would have significantly enhanced his chances of surviving after falling overboard. The report also found that the ship's bridge crew did not follow man overboard procedure. Their response was "not intuitive," the report said: the ship did not return to the position where the man fell, did not mark the area where it happened, and did not sound a general alarm. Whilst unlikely to have saved the man, the failure to follow procedure would have wasted valuable time if the man had been wearing a life jacket. In this case the most effective means of raising the alarm on board the ship, sounding the general alarm, was not used. "Consequently, not all of the crew were available to help manage the recovery." The commission did not make any new recommendations after its investigation, but urged the need to wear a floatation device when working over the ship's railing.

Filipino seafarer missing in Lyttelton Harbour presumed dead

Christchurch: The search continued in Lyttelton Harbour today after a 52-year-old seafarer fell overboard containership Madinah (4,258 teu, built 2010) just after 1pm yesterday, around 3km from Lyttelton Port. Yesterday the local coast guard, a rescue helicopter and 16 other vessels took up a search for the man, but by late evening operations was called off due to cold weather conditions. While the search resumed today, police said they were not involved now as the search turns into a body recovery rather than rescue search. The vessel remains docked at the port. The Madinah is owned by Seaspan, and currently on charter to OOCL, who run the vessel on their China – New Zealand service. It was also involved in an incident on Wednesday at Port Chalmers, when a crane operator was hospitalised as a straddle container carrier he was operating fell over while unloading the vessel.