Author(s): Nataliya Marchenko
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Abstract: It is very important to analyze sea-ice-induced ship casualties because transport activity at high latitudes is growing. A significant search is underway for an Arctic alternative to the southern (Suez) route from Europe to Asia. However, despite global warming and forecasts of an ice-free Arctic, ice conditions are still rather difficult. The Vilkitsky Strait was closed by ice for almost the entire navigation season 2013. Several accidents occurred, including the rupture of a tanker by an ice floe, nipping and overwintering last year. The frequency of ship casualties in the Polar regions is much smaller than in the world ocean. But due to a low self-purification capacity of Arctic and Antarctic nature and harsh weather conditions, we should try to avoid any type of failure and minimize the risks involved. An analysis of ship accidents caused by sea ice in the Russian Arctic over the previous century (Marchenko, 2012) shows that a majority of casualties were related to floating ice. In significant number of cases, the accidents could be avoided if captains took into consideration sea ice properties, distinguished between “strong ice” (multiyear ice, icebergs) and “soft” first year ice. In this article, several cases on serious casualties with floating ice are presented. These cases include incidents with holing of the icebreaker Admiral Lazarev (1965, East Siberian Sea), the cruise ship Maxim Gorkiy (1989, Greenland Sea) and the tanker Nordvik (2013, Kara Sea); sinking of the adventure vessel Explorer (2007, South Ocean) and freighter Nina Sagaydak (1983, Chukchi Sea), nipping and drift of several vessels in Okhotsk Sea (2010-2011,2013-14) and Akademik Shokalskiy (2013-14, South Ocean). The analysis of accidents should be done to avoid accidents in future.
Year: 2014