The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch says that ECDIS safeguards were either "overlooked, disabled or ignored" in the grounding of a bulk carrier off the east coast of England last December. The bulk carrier Muros ran aground on December 3, 2016, on Haisborough Sand, a charted sandbank about 8 miles off England's Norfolk coast. The vessel was re-floated 6 days later … [Read more...]
Your Ship has Probably Been Cyber Attacked Already
You have been either hacked... or just didn’t know you have been hacked! By George Ward (ECDIS Ltd.) - I predict that the first catastrophic maritime cyber incident will not be the result of a direct attack on a safety critical specific piece of equipment. It will be the result of an infection on a random PC, perhaps an unassuming email to a crew member, whose PC is … [Read more...]
Australia Finds Detained Bulk Carrier’s Crew Was Unable to Operate the Ship’s ECDIS
Australian authorities have detained a Panama-flagged bulk carrier in Brisbane after officials found that the crew was untrained in the operation of the ship's electronic navigation equipment. The Brisbane Times reports that the bulk carrier African Alke was detained Thursday after a port state control inspection revealed the bridge officers on board were unable to … [Read more...]
In Double ECDIS Failure what good is a Sextant?
By Jaquelyn Burton (Coeval, Inc.) ECDIS is becoming ubiquitous - and that is a good thing. However, as we move towards more and more vessels relying wholly on ECDIS and heavily on its integration with GPS, some new problems are of growing concern. At a time of an ever-increasing amount of automation, the U.S. Navy is going back to teaching celestial navigation after an … [Read more...]
U.S. Coast Guard Approves Use of Electronic Charts
The U.S. Coast Guard published guidance February 5th that allows mariners to use electronic charts and publications instead of paper charts, maps and publications. The Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular, NVIC 01-16 establishes uniform guidance on what is now considered equivalent to chart and publication carriage requirements. Combining the suite of electronic … [Read more...]