The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has blamed faulty electronics for a 2021 collision on the Mississippi River that saw a bulker slam into a barge hosting an office.
The agency said in an accident investigation report that the 52,000-dwt Jalma Topic (built 2006) lost steering after a relay on the Marfin Management-managed ship’s servo control board failed, preventing the ship’s rudder from turning.
“Failures in steering control systems can result in damaging consequences,” the NTSB said in the report.
“In channels or during manoeuvring, where immediate hazards (grounding, traffic, objects) are in proximity and therefore response time is critical to avoiding a casualty, steering system failure contingencies require immediate crew response.”
The NTSB said a port pilot instructed the Jalma Topic’s helmsman to set the rudder to 10 degrees, then zero, then steady the vessel, all while the rudder remained at 10 degrees.
The rudder issues kept the ship moving to its port side at 9.2 knots. The NTSB said the ship was turning 15 degrees every minute, which increased to 25 degrees per minute as it neared the Cooper/T Smith Corp barge complex, including the office barge, three tugs and two barges.
As the Jalam Topic neared the complex, the pilot radioed the New Orleans vessel traffic centre to have them inform the company the ship was headed for them.
“Call up Smith’s fleet right away and tell them I’m headed … right in for them. Tell ’em get outta there,” the pilot said, according to the report.
“Tell ‘em to get out of there traffic; right away, get out, get out!” the pilot said in a second radio transmission to the traffic centre.
The eventual collision caused damage to the Jalma Topic's bulbous bow and caused spillage of ballast water.
The office structure and its barge hull was damaged, and one of the other barges at the Cooper/T Smith Corp complex was pushed up upriver.
In total, the incident caused $6.22m in damage, the NTSB said.
The agency said there were no alarms to notify the crew of issues with the rudder until after the helmsman noticed it was not working and that the second officer did not check the autopilot data display where the alarm was once it went off.
After the collision, an NTSB technician found all other parts of the steering system were working except for the control board.
The NTSB also said that the steering control system manufacturer distributed a sticker laying out a procedure should the control board fail, but the agency said it would not have solved the issue as the language on the sticker was unclear. Marfin also told the NTSB it was not aware of the sticker until after the crash.
