“The inspectors revealed some of the worst conditions we have ever seen,” says Alf Tore Sørheim, Head of Department of Operative Supervision at the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA).
During a PSC inspection, the NMA’s inspectors will check compliance with the safety and environment requirements and verify that the crew are provided with decent working and living conditions. In this case, nothing could be further from the truth.
“This illustrates why it is essential that we, as an authority, carry out PSC inspections on board. Fortunately, such serious deficiencies have only been detected on rare occasions. This is, however, a reminder that our inspectors are doing an important job,” says Mr Sørheim.
For this vessel, a tank ship, the deficiencies led to detention and 19 orders to rectify, several of which have been categorised as serious.
Since the ship was listed as “high risk” in the port State control system, an inspection must be performed every 6 months. Data show that other authorities were on board the vessel in November 2021. Also at that time, the captain and crew were ordered to rectify a number of deficiencies.
“Since a number of recurring issues have been identified, the ship will be detained until all deficiencies have been rectified.
Port State Control (PSC) is the inspection of foreign flag ships in Norwegian ports (mainland Norway and Svalbard) to verify that the condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international regulations and that the ship is manned and operated in compliance with these rules.