Exploring the Underlying Causes of Chinese Eastern Star, Korean Sewol, and Thai Phoenix Ferry Accidents by Employing the HFACS-MA.

Xiaolong Wang,Ruipeng Tong,Boling Zhang,Xu Zhao,Lulu Wang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17114114

Abstract

Maritime safety is a significant topic in the maritime industry since the numerous dangers at sea could lead to loss of property, environmental pollution, and even casualties. Existing research illustrates that human factors are the primary reasons of maritime accidents. Indeed, numerous maritime accidents can be classified into different types of human factors. In this context, the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System for Maritime Accidents (HFACS-MA) model is introduced in this paper. The HFACS-MA framework consists of five levels, complying with the core concepts of HFACS and the guiding principles of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Based on the five levels of the framework, this research explores the underlying causes of Chinese Eastern Star, Korean Sewol, and Thai Phoenix accidents, and a comparative analysis is conducted. The analysis demonstrates the utility of applying the HFACS-MA model to the maritime industry, and the results emphasize the importance of the following categories: legislation gaps, organizational process, inadequate supervision, communication (ships and VTS), decision errors, and so on. Consequently, the research enables increased support for HFACS-MA and its application and provides valuable information for safety management and policy development in the maritime industry at different levels.

Highlights

The maritime industry is the global economic lifeblood, transporting about 90% of global trade, so maritime safety is a vital factor for the sustainable development of international economics and trade [1]
Maritime safety has always been an important aspect for the maritime industry because there are numerous dangers that can drastically lead to casualties, environmental pollution, as well as tremendous property damage [2,3,4]
In order to extract the causation factors accurately, four safety experts are invited to analyze the three maritime accidents based on the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS)-MA framework

Summary

Introduction

The maritime industry is the global economic lifeblood, transporting about 90% of global trade, so maritime safety is a vital factor for the sustainable development of international economics and trade [1]. The maritime industry includes several components such as crew members, maritime regulatory bodies, ships, ship owners, and classification societies, and these components have different effects on safety performance [2]. It is essential to understand human error and organizational factors contributing to accidents for effective management and policy development in the maritime industry [8]. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), whose intention it is to create a fair and effective regulatory framework for the maritime industry in order to decrease human errors, has issued a number of maritime conventions. The four main maritime regulatory conventions are International Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), Convention on the International

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