Catastrophic engine failure and fire on board ro-ro passenger ferry Wight Sky

Location: Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England.

Accident Investigation Report 14/2018

Investigation report into marine accident including what happened, safety lessons learned, actions taken and recommendations:

Damage to main engine on board Wight Sky

Summary

At 2133 on 12 September 2017, while approaching Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, the ro-ro passenger ferry Wight Sky suffered a catastrophic failure of one of its Volvo Penta D16 main propulsion engines, followed by a fire. The fire was brought under control in less than 2 minutes, but the vessel바카라 사이트™s engineer, who had been standing near the engine, suffered serious burn injuries to his hands and face. Although he was discharged from hospital 7 days later, he was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had not returned to work at the time of publishing this report.

Safety lessons

  • rebuilding the engine and transporting it in parts to the engine room through an emergency escape rather than using the vessel바카라 사이트™s deck opening, created the possibility of dirt ingress into the engine bearing lubricating channel

  • the engine was not fitted with a wear detector, so there was no means of receiving a warning before the engine failed

  • the essential services switchboard aft circuit breaker had been left in manual mode, resulting in the loss of power to critical equipment, including the fixed fire-fighting system

Recommendation

A recommendation has been made to Volvo Penta UK (2018/120), to consider offering wear particle detection technology for marine engines that cannot be easily serviced on board.

Published: 19 July 2018

Updates to this page

Published 18 July 2018