(Photo: MAIB)
Substandard maintenance was found to be a major contributing factor at the root of a 2018 engine room fire aboard the DFDS ro-ro vessel Finlandia Seaways in April 2018, U.K. accident investigators found.
The Lithuanian registered vessel was in transit from Zeebrugge, Belgium to Rosyth, U.K., when it suffered a catastrophic main engine failure that caused serious structural damage to the engine and a fire in the engine room. The vessel’s third engineer, who was on duty in the engine room at the time, suffered serious smoke-related lung, kidney and eye injuries during his escape.
According to a report by the U.K. s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, the engine failure was initiated by the failure of a single component, and the standard and management of maintenance carried out by the vessel operator’s maintenance support contractor was a significant causal factor.
On 16 April 2018, the Lithuanian registered
ro-ro cargo vessel Finlandia Seaways suffered a catastrophic main engine failure that caused serious structural damage to the engine and a fire in the engine room. The vessel’s third engineer, who was on duty in the engine room at the time, suffered serious smoke-related lung, kidney and eye injuries during his escape.
The investigation identified that the catastrophic engine failure and been initiated by the failure of a single component and found that the standard and management of maintenance carried out by the vessel operator’s maintenance support contractor was a significant causal factor.
Union Disgust as Ferry Engine Fire Report Published by Marine Accident Investigators
Incident Resulted in Closure of Scottish - Belgian RoRo Freight Service
UK – BELGIUM – LITHUANIA – This week saw the publishing of the report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) into the fire aboard the RoRo Cargo ferry
Finlandia Seaways. The report does not make good reading for the owners and operators of the ship DFDS Seaways AB-Lithuania.
The ship, which has now been redeployed to the Baltic Sea, was flagged as Lithuanian and serviced and maintained by the Diesel Service Group in Klaipeda. She sailed from Zeebrugge on 16 April 2018 headed for Rosyth in Scotland. That evening, while 11 miles off the coast of Lowestoft the main engine suffered an explosion.
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