A damning report has laid bare the chaos surrounding the rescue of seafarers from a burning car carrier off the Netherlands last July.
One crew member died in the fire on the 6,210-ceu Fremantle Highway (built 2013), 27 km north of the island of Ameland.
An investigation into the evacuation of the surviving 22 seafarers has revealed that the situation was so confused that only “professional intuition” and “pragmatic solutions” prevented things getting even worse.
The probe was carried out by the Trimension agency from Delft, the Leeuwarder Courant reported.
The agency found that ambulances arrived at closed airport gates, helicopter crews did not know where to take the rescued seafarers and pilots did not know where they could refuel.
The report is based on testimony from the Coast Guard and other agencies involved, as well as salvor Multraship.
The vessel was on fire for days after attempts failed to extinguish the blaze that broke out on 26 July.
The Fremantle Highway is owned by Japan’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha and chartered to K Line.
The report claimed that officers on the vessel told the Coast Guard at first that no help was needed.
The seriousness of the blaze only became clear when a Coast Guard plane arrived at the scene two hours later.
Helicopters redirected
Infrared cameras revealed the car carrier was “radiating heat from front to back” and an evacuation was urged “strictly and as soon as possible”.
Helicopters had been prepared for firefighting, but had to be switched to a rescue mission.
Two of these aircraft saved 16 crew members, but seven others jumped overboard, which was when the fatality occurred.
Rescue boats took the survivors to Lauwersoog.
But the report said no one knew what to do with the crew members on the helicopters, which first flew towards the hospital in Leeuwarden.
However, they were diverted to the Leeuwarden Air Base because the seafarers were mostly uninjured.
A subsequent error in communications between the control room and the Coast Guard command centre meant they were then redirected to Eelde airport.
Once at the airport, the seafarers could not be transferred to paramedics because the airport gate was closed to waiting ambulances.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
