MMA investigating why minor incident developed into a disaster

The Malta Maritime Authority is investigating why "what ought to have been a minor incident ended up as a disaster", chairman Marc Bonello said yesterday.

Speaking in an interview, Dr Bonello said the Maltese registered ship Tasman Spirit, which broke in two off Karachi on July 27, had been battered by the monsoon for 15 days before breaking up.

The ship was a single hulled 23-year-old tanker that had been classed by the Japanese classification society Class NK.

Dr Bonello said there was the "unfortunate tendency by the media to pre-judge any incident which involved Maltese-registered ships".

The Tasman Spirit was entering the port of Karachi carrying oil from Iran at the end of July. She was under the direction of a pilot but there was a long time between the vessel being given clearance to make port and the tide ebbing out, Dr Bonello said.

In manoeuvring in the approach to the harbour, the ship ran aground on a reef. She remained there for two weeks, during which time she was incessantly battered by the monsoon.

"Ships running aground are frequent incidents and the initial indications were that they would manage to refloat the ship and contain the spill, which up to then was minor.

"But salvage operations were unsuccessful and cracks developed. In the end, the ship broke up, spilling 12,000 tons of oil, causing significant pollution," Dr Bonello said.

Pakistan has asked the International Maritime Organisation for help in cleaning up and requested $200,000 dollars as an initial claim. Pakistan was also holding the ship owners and crew responsible.

MMA was following the incident closely. The flag state inspector had been there since when the ship grounded and the director of the Merchant Shipping Directorate, Lino Vassallo, and a Maltese inspector were now in Karachi to interview the crew and the port authorities there.

"Investigations are in hand and one should not jump to premature conclusions. The ship did not sink because she flew the Maltese flag," he stressed.

Dr Bonello said the time the tanker spent lodged on the reef before breaking up was sufficiently long for her to be removed. MMA was now trying to find out whether the tugs used to try to pull it off the reef were strong enough and if the Port Authority in Pakistan acted fast enough.

"If there were any shortcomings from the crew or her owners, these would be made public.

"The flag state casualty report would be presented to whoever may have been involved for their comments and it would then be presented to the IMO and published by MMA," Dr Bonello said.

The MMA was committed to continue to monitor and train its inspectors as well as implement risk management information systems.

In doing so, it would continue to minimise the detention rate of Maltese flagged vessels.

The trend in the past few years showed a sharp decline: while in 1995 the detention rate was of one in six ships, now only one in 16 were detained by the Paris MOU. Malta's detention rate was now seven per cent. The average EU flag state detention rate is four per cent.