Speaking at a press conference, DNV GL’s Tor Svensen stated that “the trend that was positive has been reversed – the amount of accidents is going up.”
“Crew fatalities are 10 times higher than land-based best practice,” said Svensen. “We do not have a global system where we can learn from accidents.”
Svensen indicated that improved ship-to-shore communication would result in improved decision support for crew members, so that rather than seeing a reduction in crew decision making, crew members would be in a position to make better decisions based on improved decision support technology. DNV GL is aiming for a 90% reduction in maritime fatalities by 2050.
Although many discuss the possibility of unmanned ships as a solution to human error, Svensen discounted this as a possibility, indicating that humans would always be needed to maintain systems aboard ship as well as for making decisions.
Pressed on crew dynamics in a Q&A session, Svensen said that although it was possible that ships would be operated by a “skeleton crew” he “hoped it would not get to that stage”. Crews of the future, he argued, would be “fewer people, better trained”.
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