Inaccurate weights caused container collapse

Inaccurate weights caused container collapse    The U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch said inaccurate weights on a containership loading plan were responsible for a collapse of a stack of containers on a feeder vessel last October.
   The accident happened on the container feeder vessel Husky Racer in Bremerhaven in October. The ship is owned by Magellan Chartering Services and was chartered by Maersk Line.
   During discharge and loading operations, containers in one bay toppled, resulting in the loss of 18 containers overboard. There were no injuries.
   U.K. investigators found that top containers in seven of the nine stacks which were shown on the plan as empty, actually had contents with weights ranging between 15 and 30 tons.
   The agency said its preliminary examination “found that the inaccurate container weights were on the loading plan because of a system shortcoming which did not update the operations department when the shipper provided more accurate contents details to the carrier. The trigger that caused the containers to collapse is unclear.”
   It said Maersk is running trials on an upgraded software package that will provide cargo planners with the declared weights of the containers. This is scheduled to be introduced in the first weeks of this year.
   Additional information is available here.