Page 24 - Navigator 19

The ‘own enemy’ statement of Palmers, who works as a pilot in the Scheldemonden region and also serves on the board of the regional pilot corporation, refers to the fact that pilots are far too accepting of inferior pilot ladders. While the safety of shipping is always a pilot’s top priority, his ‘can-do’ mentality and service-oriented attitude make him inclined to brush aside potential health risks to himself. Not a wise thing: worldwide, two to three fatalities occur annually due to faulty pilot ladders.
In a separate notebook, Palmers keeps track of how often he personally encounters sub-standard pilot ladders in his work. “Between May 2018 and August 2019, 135 of the 296 ships I piloted had issues with the pilot ladder. In five cases, I actually refused to board and requested that they first fix their pilot ladder arrangement.”
‘IN MANY CASES, YOU CAN IMMEDIATELY TELL WHETHER A PROPER PILOT LADDER IS BEING USED’
CLEAR LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
The legal requirements for a pilot ladder are straightforward and have been clearly established internationally in SOLAS regulation V/23, with a further elaboration in IMO resolution 1045(27). Technical construction requirements have been laid down in NEN-ISO 799-1/2019. For those who do not have these rules immediately at hand: it is mandatory to display a poster listing the ‘Required boarding arrangements for pilot’ on the bridge of every seagoing ship. This poster very clearly shows the correct procedures.
“In many cases, you can immediately tell whether a proper pilot ladder is being used,” knows Palmers from experience. “The maximum allowed length is nine metres, the minimum length 1.5 metres.
The bottom four rungs must be made of rubber, the fifth step must
be a spreader; furthermore, steps must never be painted to avoid slipperiness. But there are so many other factors that can make a pilot ladder unsafe to use.”
IMPA RAISES AWARENESS EVERY YEAR
The many shortcomings are clearly summed up in the annual IMPA Pilot Ladder Safety Survey. Based on surveys completed by pilots from across the globe, the international advocacy group each year
24 NAVIGATOR NL 2019 N°19