Page 25: of Marine News Magazine (January 2015)

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that can make a difference for the Lae-Kavieng route in

Papua New Guinea.

F FERRY OUNDERING

The foundering of ferries is not just a foreign matter.

Early last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released their “most wanted” list of transportation improvements and new to the list released last January, was the advancement of passenger vessel safety. NTSB states that “accident investigations involving passenger vessels revealed in numerous cases that the cause of an accident was not the failure of the vessel, but the lack of good safety practices that led to the loss of life and injuries.” Boat build- ers will attest that the design review and inspection services provided by the U.S. Coast Guard are extremely thorough and today’s vessels are the most seaworthy. On the surface, it appears as though the Coast guard may be expending more efforts on vessel inspection than crew member com- petency, which time and time again has been the root of the few, but signi