Bunbury Port bulk carrier grounding a result of poor communication between staff, report finds

A report into the grounding of a grain ship in the Bunbury Port in 2023 has found ineffective bridge management contributed to the incident. Released on Thursday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the report investigated the circumstances surrounding the brief grounding of the bulk carrier ship World Diana on April 22, 2023 as it left berth three of the port. It found the problems for the 229m ship began when the process to manoeuvre it with support boats began earlier than planned to avoid a submerged rock, giving it less space to movev. According to the ATSB, the ship then unexpectedly sped up and tug boats were unsuccessful in correcting its course and preventing a grounding. Mr Mitchell said poor communication channels hampered the ability for the initial error to be corrected. “Specific information and limits for the departure plan were only known to the pilot, which made it difficult for the bridge team to raise concerns during the event,” he said. “Nevertheless, had the ship’s master – an experienced ship-handler familiar with the ship’s movement characteristics – been actively monitoring the pilotage, the early turn and ship’s increasing headway should have become evident.” The impact with the shallow bank caused the boat to stop in its tracks and left it with minor damage but it quickly backed up into deeper water and its scheduled trip to Thailand went ahead. Despite initial inspections finding no evidence of grounding, the incident was reported as a near miss and further review found a grounding had occurred through surveying the seabed. In its findings the ATSB said the pilot did not detect the portable pilot unit projecting the ship to ground and therefore did not inform the bridge team of the imminent potential incident. It also found neither the bridge team or the forward tug master told the pilot their concerns regarding the manoeuvre before it was too late. A Southern Ports spokesperson said the incident was a rare occasion and confirmed it had made several changes to operations to prevent a repeat of the grounding. “We have more than 850 vessels that successfully visit our ports each year and incidents like this are extremely rare - this is the first incident of this kind at Southern Ports,” they said. “The safety of our people and operations are our highest priority and we’ve worked closely with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the other parties involved to ensure the matter was fully investigated. “As the findings of the investigation show, we have since updated our Marine Pilotage Standards and Procedures and have included a maximum rate of turn for turning ships in the Bunbury harbour of 20 degrees per minute. “More broadly, we have a highly experienced team of marine pilots who have a unique understanding of local conditions and undertake rigorous training each year to maintain and extend their pilotage skills.”